This book fully integrates the conventional and biotechnological approaches to fruit crop breeding. Individual chapters are written on a wide variety of species including apple, apricot, blackberry, blueberry, cranberry, cherry, currant, gooseberry, grape, kiwifruit, peach, pear, plum, raspberry and strawberry.
For each crop, there is a discussion of their taxonomy and evolution, history of improvement, crossing techniques, evaluation methods, heritability of major traits and germplasm resources, along with the most recent advances in genetic mapping and QTL (quantitative trait loci) analysis, marker assisted breeding, gene cloning, gene expression analysis, regeneration and transformation. Patenting and licensing issues are also covered. This book will be useful in fruit breeding classes and should provide as a springboard for all fruit breeders desiring an update on the latest technologies, horticulturalists who wonder what is being done in fruit breeding and genomicists searching for a way to contribute to fruit breeding efforts.