Recent Advances in Varietal Improvement and Rootstock Breeding of Plum

Abstract

The diversity of plums is expressed by their names together with prunes, bullaces, damson, date plums, green gauges, mirabilis, cherry plums and sloes. Genetic variability in plum species and cultivars is necessary in the breeding programs in order to produce the desired characteristics. Presently, the genetic resources of plums available worldwide can be used for future screening, particularly in diploid plums. For utilization in breeding programmes in respect to biotic and abiotic stress, compatibility with rootstocks, low chilling resistance and self-fruitful. There are some clones of plums that have an excellent degree of hypersensitivity resistance with great variation in fruit quality, namely, Hanita, Felsina and Fellenberg. Jojo crossed with Haganta gave PPV-resistant clones. On the other hand, rootstock breeding is also essential in terms of vigour, yield, precocity, fruit quality, wide adaptability to soil and climatic conditions. The plum transgenic cultivar Honeysweet shows the appearance of a viral coat protein (CP) gene that has the ability to check the replication of a virus through the inhibition of virus activity. Marker-assisted selection is a rapid technique for the pre-selection of multiple desired characters simultaneously than the conventional breeding programme, genetic constitutions shortly before that than is considered in the field. This technique can save the time-space continuum and focus on genes of interest for the development of elite cultivars. In plums, DNA-based markers (SSRs) are especially beneficial to distinguish plant species quickly and accurately.