PEAR BREEDING
J.KALAIVANI
2022532302
Introduction:
Botanical name:-
Pyrus communis (European pear)
Pyrus pyrifolia (Asian pear)
Genus: Pyrus
Family: Rosaceae
Origin – Western China
Basic chromosome No.: n-17(2n=34)
Inflorescence – Corymbose,
Fruit type- Pome
Genome size -512Mb China (2012)
Chilling requirement :- 1200 hrs.
Introduces in India by 19th century in Partharnakh (Punjab)
Pear fruits are consumed fresh, canned, as juice and dried.
Low chilling varieties is cultivation in sub –tropical region of UP, PB, UK .
Domestication:
During the 19th century, Belgium developed varieties “Beurre Bosc,”
“Beurre d’Anjou,” “Flemish Beauty,” and “Winter Nelis” .
In Asia, the cultivation began over 2500 years ago, with the main species Pyrus
pyrifolia, Pyrus serotina, and Pyrus ussuriensis.
During the Edo period in Japan (1603–1868) over 150 cultivars were documented.
Pear was introduced by the English and French settlers in the United States
and Canada, and in 1629, there was record of its cultivation in New England
In the United States, 19th century, breeders (crosses between Asian and
European pears) to resistance to cold and “fire blight” disease.
Genetic resources:
World’s largest pear germplasm about 1700 accessions representing 26 major
Pyrus taxa and their hybrids are being maintained at USDA National Clonal
germplasm in Corvallis, USA.
750 pear collected and deposited at Kobe University in an ex situ field gene bank.
In India, 97 accessions of pear germplasm is being maintained in NBPGR .
56 accessions at Regional Horticulture Station, Kotkhai.
Other like IARI, Regional Station, Amartara, Shimla also maintaining the
germplasm of some improved types.
South the Nilgiri hills also temperate fruits eg. apple, pear, peach, apricot, plum,
walnut, almond, pecan nut, hazelnut, chestnut, berries.
Centre of diversity:
•The genus Pyrus has probably originated in the mountainous regions of western
china.
•Vavilov proposed 3 centres of origin for the cultivated pears
•Chinese centre
•Central Asiatic centre
•Near eastern centre
•The important species originated in the Chinese centre are P.pyrifolia ,P.ussuriensis,
P.betulifolia.
•The indigenous species of central Asiatic centre are P.communis,
P.salicifolia,P.regeli,and P.pashia.
•Sub tropical regions cultivation of many low chilling cultivars such as patharnakh,
leconte, keiffer and Chinese sandy pear has been reported even from the hot plains
of northern India.
Salient features of very important species are given below:
1.P. Communis (European pear) -Trees are pyramidal in shape, medium tall and spiny
when young.
2) P. pyrifolia (Sand pear)- Tree is tall, vigorous & spreading type. Fruits are mostly
round (apple shaped) & very hard.
P.communis P.pyrifolia
3) P. pashia (Wild Himalayan pear) -Locally known as ‘Mehal’, ‘Kainth’ or
‘Shaira’.Mainly used as rootsock in India.
4) Pyrus nivalis (French snow pear):- Distribution is mainly in Australia and wild in
France.The plant is very colourful, small with thick shoots
P. pashia
Pyrus nivalis
Species
Zeven and Zhukovsky (1975) mentioned about 60 species, among them 22
primary species and the rest are non- primary species which may be botanical
varieties, subspecies or interspecific hybrids.
Bell and Hough (1986) classified all the primary species into 5 groups on the
basis of geographical distribution as under:
1.Europian group P . communis, P . nivalis, P . cordata,
P . caucasica
2. North Africa group P .longipes, P .gharbiana, P .memorensis
3. West Asiangroup P . syriaca, P . elaeagrifolia, P . amygdaliformis, P .
salicifolia, P .glabra,
P . regelii.
4. East Asian group P .pyrifolia, P .kansuensis, P . ussuriensis, P .
hodoensis.
5. Asian group P . calleryana, P . betulifolia, P . fauriei,
P . dimorphophylla, P .koehnei.
Floral Biology, Anthesis And Pollination:
Flowers are hermaphrodite. It bears flowers on the 2 year- old wood.
Chilling requirement: - 1200 hrs. below 7°c temp.
Anthesis vary with different cultivars and depending on climatic conditions.
Maximum opening of the flowers is between 6.00am – 6.00pm with gradual
increase upto 12.00pm.
The flower borne from terminal, mixed buds of short spurs, appearing before or
with the leaves.
Flower corymbose inflorescences, 5-7.5 cm wide, containing 5-7 showy white,
2.5-3.5 cm wide flower and protogynous. Each flower has 5-6 petals, 20-30 pink,
red or purple anthers with 2 to 5 free style.
Pollination
•Mostly self-incompatible pollinated by insects especially bees.
1. Pears are self-sterile and need more than one variety planted within 12 or 15 m of
each other in order to cross-pollinate.
2. It flowers around March-April, while fruiting occurs in July- September.
Objective of pear breeding :
Fruit quality
Fruit quality is another very important objective in all pear breeding programmes.it
includes size, shape, skin colour, flesh colour, texture, flavour, storage life and
processing quality of fruits.
Cultivars having bright yellow with a bright red blush fruit colour on ripening is
required.
Cultivars with good flavour with high sugar and aromatic compounds and
less tannin and acid contents.
Long storage life without internal breakdown is another important.
Resistance of insect pest and disease
Cultivars resistant to fire blight disease or Psylla pest are to be evolved.
Scion and Rootstock
To develop dwarf scion and dwarf rootstocks tolerant to wet and saline salts
and resistant to diseases like Ganoderma and root rot.
Cultivars resistant to cold, high temperatures, wet or drought conditions
are also need to be evolved.
Develop high yielding cultivar which has to be precocious, annual bearer,
and more productive per unit of land.
Problems in breeding
It is normally a cross pollinated crop, hence highly heterozygous in nature.
Long juvenile phase.
The phenomenon of vegetative parthenocarpy.
Excessive fruit drop, susceptible to different biotic and abiotic stress.
In dwarfing rootstock narrow genetic base for dwarfing character within the genus
Pyrus.
Rootstocks breeding-
Europe continues to rely heavily on quince rootstocks for high density planting
systems, except in areas of high soil pH..
Fire blight resistant types have been found in progeny of the P. communis cross,
'Old Home' x 'Farmingdale' (OH F1 rootstock series)
Other dwarfing P. communis rootstocks include 'Pyrodwarf' and 'BU 2-33' coming
from 'Old Home' x 'Bonne Louise d'Avranches' (Jacob 1998 and 2002)
Pyrus pashia is used in northern India and southern China; it is resistant to black
end, although it is sensitive to lime-induced chlorosis and is susceptible to the woolly
pear aphid (Bell et al. 1996).
Introduction:
Bartlett, Anjou, Kieffer are only introductions from Europe and are well acclimatized to
the northern and southern Indian hills.
Bartlett Anjou Kieffer
Clonal Selection:
An extensive survey of pear growing areas in Punjab and PAU, Ludhiana resulted
in the identification of 19 superior strains of soft pears.
Soft fleshed selections Red Blush, Punjab Gold, and Punjab Nectar are
promising.
Red Blush with high yield potential. Punjab nectar is also a high yielder and very
juicy.
Punjab gold has large fruits and good quality.
Variation in the renowned cultivar is often observed which may be due to gene mutation
Red Blush Punjab Gold Punjab Nectar
Hybridization:
Intraspecific, interspecific and intergeneric hybridisation are possible in pears
because no major crossing barrier exists.
Prabhat (sharbati x florida sun )-Early maturing hybrid
Wild seedlings are employed as better sources of disease resistance or cold
hardiness back crossing.
Keiffer is a hybrid between French pear and oriental pear
Keiffer
Intergenic sterile hybrid
Mule Troth early pach X wild goose plum
Kamdesa Peach x sand cherry
Pyronia Pear x quince
Unique Quince x pear
Mutation:
When the improvement skin colour, disease resitance,compact growth, self-
fertility and maturity season, mutation either through ionizing radiation or
chemical mutagenic agents
One of them, 'Gold Nijisseiki', black spot resistant varieties show high
promise (Ahloowalia et al. 2004).
Max red bartlett is bud mutation of Bartlett
Mutation induction may be useful in breaking up linked genes and creating
genetic variability but it is no substitute for conventional systems of selection and
hybridisation.
Spontaneous mutations (bud sports) have given red coloured cultivars eg.
Starkimson from clapp’s and Red Anjou from Anjou.
Max red bartlett Starkimson Red Anjou
Fruit quality
Deep red colored sports of 'Bartlett' called 'Cardinal Red' and 'Max Red' were
found to be regulated by a single dominant gene, C by Zielinski (1963). Brown
(1966)
In 'Bartlett', 77 volatile compounds have been identified with varying impacts on
flavor (Jennings and Tressel 1974).
The size of pears is under polygenic control with variable levels of heritability
depending on breeding population (Zielinski et al. 1965).
The inheritance of flavor in hybrid populations of P. ussuriensis is quantitative with
poor flavor showing some dominance (Lantz 1929).
Conclusion :
•In India, very little breeding work had been done in the past in pear. Only some
work was done for varietal improvement.
•But the region of temperate Himalayan Mountains has wide diversity of Pyrus and
Cydonia.
•So, it is very important to exploit them which may be suitable breeding materials
in future.
•Rootstock breeding to combine specific traits like higher yield, improved fruit
quality, resistance to different biotic and abiotic factors along with graft
compatibility, is going on in different pear breeding station around the world.
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