Breeding for Fruit Quality

A renewed effort to improve fruit yield and quality is underway worldwide, as is evidenced by the specialty crop research initiatives being supported by many national and international agricultural agencies. Although significant advances are expected in areas of field production and postharvest practices, genetic approaches to improving appearance, nutritional value, and storage life are at the avant-garde of fruit breeding research. Breeding for Fruit Quality presents a thorough analysis of plant breeding efforts to improve fruit quality, as well as a contemporary understanding of the physiological, developmental, and genetic mechanisms underlying associated traits. Breeding for Fruit Quality approaches recent developments in fruit genetics both holistically and by species. Beginning chapters examine new strategies for indentifying and enhancing fruit characteristics, including efforts to discover genetic variation, and to manipulate this variation through mutation, transgenic, and molecular marker-assisted breeding approaches. Later chapters focus on significant qualitative advancement in key fruits, such as apples, raspberries, grapes, melons, tomatoes, olives, citrus, and more. Breeding for Fruit Quality is globally contributed under the established editorship of Matthew A. Jenks and Penelope Bebeli, and is a must-have reference for agronomists, horticulturists, crop breeders, as well as geneticists and biotechnologists in these fields.