Current Status of Knowledge and Research Perspectives in Korean Pear Genomics

Abstract

The pear (Pyrus spp.) is most important fruit crop in the world. The genus Pyrus belongs to the subfamily Maloideae in the Rosaceae family and contains at least 22 primary species; however, only a few species, including P. pyrifolia, P. ussuriensis, P. bretschneideri, and P. communis have been utilized for fruit production. In Korea, awareness of the importance of the fruit industry and fruit tree breeding is low, and there is little support for genetic and genomic studies of fruit trees. In foreign countries, studies have focused on obtaining genomic information of fruit crops and the development of important agronomic trait-related molecular markers, providing a genomic framework for fruit tree breeding. Although Korea does not actively participate in research on the genomics of fruit trees, it is not far behind other countries in terms of technology and is therefore still competitive in research and development. The resequencing of 'Whangkeumbae' and 'Minibae' pears has been performed using the Illumina Hiseq 2000 platform as a part of the Biogreen 21 project, offering novel, rapid methods for identification of molecular marker, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, insertion-deletions, and simple sequence repeats, through next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. These NGS-based molecular markers are useful for genetic studies of Asian pears, e.g., for construction of genetic linkage maps, mapping of quantitative trait loci, and marker-assisted selection.