Pedigrees of apple (Malus ×domestica Borkh.) cultivars were used to study worldwide genetic diversity among clones used in modern apple breeding. The most frequent founding clones were `Cox's Orange Pippin', `Golden Delicious', `Red Delicious', `Jonathan', and `McIntosh'. Coefficients of coancestry between 50 mainstream cultivars and these clones averaged 0.03, 0.12, 0.07, 0.06, and 0.02, respectively, but they were frequently as high as 0.25 with certain pairings. Among a group of 27 cultivars carrying the Vf gene for scab resistance, coefficients of coancestry with the five founding clones were of the same order. Although few of the cultivars sampled were substantially inbred, inbreeding could reach serious levels in their future offspring if current breeding practices are continued. The status effective number was 8 for the mainstream group and 7 for the Vf-carrier clones. This indicates clearly that apple breeders are operating with a population of greatly reduced genetic diversity. Careful consideration of pedigrees and increased size of the genetic base are needed in future apple breeding strategies.

Variance components and narrow-sense heritabilities were estimated for antioxidant activity (AA), total phenolic content (TPH), and fruit weight in red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) fruit from offspring of a factorial mating design. Forty-two full-sib families utilizing seven female and six male parents were evaluated in each of two years in Motueka, New Zealand. In a single year, values within individual half-sib families ranged as widely as 25.3-79.4 μg·g-1 fruit for AA, 205-597 mg/100 g fruit for TPH, and 1.06-7.69 g for fruit weight. Analyses of variance for these three variates demonstrated significant parental source variation in both individual and combined year analyses. For AA and TPH, female parental effects accounted for ≈7% to 19% of total variation, while male effects accounted for ≈6% to 8%. A partially pigment deficient R. parvifolius L. derivative female parent accounted for some of these differences. Female × male parent interaction was not significant for AA and TPH and was marginally significant for fruit weight in combined year analysis. Year had a significant effect on the overall mean AA and TPH, but contributed less than genetic effects to the overall variation in all three traits. Interactions of year with genetic effects were not statistically significant for AA or TPH, indicating that between-year rank or scale changes among families were negligible. The largest proportion of variation was found within rather than among full-sib families. However, variation among plots within full-sib families accounted for 12% to 19% of total variation, indicating environmental differences accounted for some of the observed within-family variation in AA and TPH. Antioxidant activity and TPH were highly phenotypically correlated (r = 0.93); their genetic correlation (r = 0.59) implies that substantial additive genetic factors underlie the phenotypic correlation, but that nonadditive genetic or environmental influences are also important. Both AA and TPH were weakly negatively phenotypically correlated with fruit weight (r = -0.34 and -0.33, respectively), but the corresponding genetic correlations were close to zero. Thus, selection for both high AA or TPH and high fruit weight is possible. Narrow-sense heritability estimates based on variance components from combined year data were h2 = 0.54, 0.48, and 0.77 for AA, TPH, and fruit weight, respectively. These estimates imply a rapid response to selection is possible.

Volatile flavor compounds from the fruit of the progeny of two apple (Malus x domestica) cultivars with distinctive flavor and volatile profiles, 'Royal Gala' and 'Granny Smith', were measured by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry over two fruiting seasons. Principal component analysis separated the volatile profiles into two groups according to the amounts produced of butyl, 2-methybutyl, pentyl, and hexyl acetates and of ethyl butanoate, butanol, 2-methylbutanol, and hexanol. Fruit containing the four acetate esters clustered with the 'Royal Gala' parent and were scored more similar to 'Royal Gala' than to "Granny Smith' in flavor. Fruit clustering with the 'Granny Smith' parent contained higher levels of ethyl butanoate and alcohols. Levels of acetate esters correlated to levels of their alcohol precursors, and control of this trait segregated in Mendelian fashion. The locus was mapped to the top of 'Royal Gala' linkage group 2 close to the Rvi4 (Vh4) locus for resistance to Venturia inaequalis , the causal agent of apple scab.

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Antioxidant compounds absorbed from our diet are thought to have a role in preventing chronic diseases that result from oxidative damage. Berry fruit have high levels of antioxidants, and further increases in antioxidant activity (AA) might be possible through breeding. We determined the AA, total phenolic content (TPH), and fruit weight in 16 blackberry and hybridberry (Rubus L.) cultivars harvested in New Zealand and Oregon in 2002 and 2003, to assess genetic and environmental variation. Both AA and TPH varied significantly between years within location, but not among cultivars or between locations per se. However, cultivar interactions with both location and year within location contributed to variation in both variates. In contrast, both cultivar and location contributed to variation in fruit weight, but years within location did not. However, the cultivar × year within location interaction was significant for this trait. Variance component distributions confirmed that cultivar and location effects together contributed little (<20%) to the total variation in either AA or TPH, while cultivar × environment interactions accounted for >50% of total variation in these traits. Cultivar and location effects together contributed ≈70% of the total variation observed in fruit weight. Phenotypic correlations were significant between AA and fruit weight (r = -0.44), and between TPH and fruit weight (r = -0.51). When adjusted for fruit weight, analyses for AA and TPH demonstrated that cultivar effects approached significance (P = 0.06) and accounted for ≈25% of total variance, while location effects accounted for none. Although the cultivars in this study had diverse interspecific backgrounds, utilization of various Rubus species in blackberry and hybridberry breeding is not uncommon, and our results demonstrating significant cultivar × environment interaction for AA and TPH should be applicable to breeding for high AA genotypes.

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This paper describes an apple breeding population that has been developed in New Zealand since 1990 to broaden the genetic base for cultivar breeding. The population is now in its third generation, with recurrent selection for general combining ability being the underlying approach. During the 20 years of the programme, nearly 1,000 trees have been progeny tested. An early focus on selection within open-pollinated tests has been replaced by selection within control-pollinated tests. Genetic evaluation methods along with estimates of genetic parameters (e.g. heritability, genetic correlations, and genotype-by-environment interactions), genetic gain, and genetic diversity are summarised in this paper. The third-generation crossing programme involving nearly 350 parents is almost completed and seedlings from these crosses are in the nursery. In the revised breeding strategy, three hierarchal populations are envisioned to better integrate this broad-based population with the more commercially focused cultivar breeding programme: main breeding population (MBP), elite breeding populations (EBP) and cultivar development populations (CDP). A two-subline structure and a minimum of two crosses per parent will be implemented in the MBP. EBP will focus on developing parents for breeding goals of the CDP. Forward-selected (based on estimated breeding values) candidates from the main-and elite populations will be used as parents of the CDP. Cloning of seedlings in elite populations and also in the firststage of cultivar development, will be investigated as a tool for enhancing predictability and shortening the cycle for delivering genetic gain.

Incidence and severity of fire blight [Erwinia amylovora (Burr.) Winslow, Broadhurst, Buchanan, Krumwiede, Rogers, and Smith] following field infection were recorded using families resulting primarily from open-pollination of Malus sylvestris (L.) Mill. var.domestica (Borkh.) Mansf. cultivars and a few other Malus Mill. sp. The families were structured as three sublines, planted in three successive years (1992 to 1994), of a diverse population of apple germplasm established at HortResearch, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. The incidence of fire blight varied among the sublines with the oldest planting exhibiting more fire blight. Flowering trees were more likely to be infected than nonflowering trees, in terms of both incidence and severity. Furthermore, the level of fire blight was related to flowering date, with later flowering trees having higher levels. Thus, family means and narrow-sense heritability estimates were computed after first adjusting the fire blight score for flowering date by fitting a linear model. Provenance of origin of the maternal parent explained little variation except that M. sieversii Lebed. families were more resistant than M. sylvestris var. domestica families in one subline. Family means computed using all trees, and those from only flowering trees were highly correlated. Families from open-pollination of M. honanensis Rehder and M. xhartwiggii Koehne females were among the more susceptible. Those from several European M. sylvestris var. domestica cultivars as well as from M. baccata (L.) Borkh. and M. toringoides (Rehder) Hughes females were among the more resistant families. Narrow-sense heritability estimates ranged from 0.05 to 0.85 depending on the subline, with most estimates between 0.12 and 0.36. They were higher in the two older sublines that consisted primarily of open-pollinated families from M. sylvestris var. domestica, and lower in the younger subline that consisted primarily of M. sieversii, due to lower incidence and severity in the latter subline. Breeders who consider potential complications of juvenility, tree size, and flowering date in relation to infection periods should be able to exploit field epidemics to perform effective selection.