Addressing the pear genome, this book covers the current state of knowledge regarding genetic and genomic resources, breeding approaches and strategies, as well as cutting-edge content on how these tools and resources are being / soon will be utilized to pursue genetic improvement efforts that will combine fruit quality, high productivity, precocious fruit bearing, and long postharvest storage life, along with elevated levels of resistance to various major diseases and insect pests. Throughout, the book also explores potential opportunities and challenges in genomic analysis, sequence assembly, structural features, as well as functional studies that will assist in future genetic improvement efforts for pears. The pear (Pyrus), an important tree fruit crop, is grown worldwide, and has several economically relevant cultivars. In recent years, modern genetic and genomic tools have resulted in the development of a wide variety of valuable resources for the pear. In the past few years, completion of whole genome assemblies of ‘Dangshansuli’, an Asian pear, and ‘Bartlett’, a European pear, have paved the way for new discoveries regarding for example, the pear’s genomic structure, chromosome evolution, and patterns of genetic variation. This wealth of new resources will have a major impact on our knowledge of the pear genome; in turn, these resources and knowledge will have significant impacts on future genetic improvement efforts.

Fruit Breeding is the eighth volume in the Handbook of Plant Breeding series. Like the other volumes in the series, this volume presents information on the latest scientific information in applied plant breeding using the current advances in the field, from an efficient use of genetic resources to the impact of biotechnology in plant breeding. The majority of the volume showcases individual crops, complemented by sections dealing with important aspects of fruit breeding as trends, marketing and protection of new varieties, health benefits of fruits and new crops in the horizon. The book also features contributions from outstanding scientists for each crop species. Maria Luisa Badenes Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Valencia, Spain David Byrne Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

This book covers information on the economics; botany, taxonomy, and origin; germplasm resources; cytogenetics and nuclear DNA; genetic improvement efforts of scion cultivars; genetic and genomic improvement efforts of rootstocks; genetic and physical mapping; genomic resources; genome and epigenome; regulatory sequences; utility of whole-genome sequencing and gene editing in trait dissection; flowering and juvenility; cold hardiness and dormancy; fruit color development; fruit acidity and sugar content; metabolomics; biology and genomics of the microbiome; apple domestication; as well as other ‘omics’ opportunities and challenges for genetic improvement of the apple. The cultivated apple (Malus x domestica Borkh.) is one of the most important tree fruit crops of temperate regions of the world. It is widely cultivated and grown in North America, Europe, and Asia. The apple fruit is a highly desirable fruit due to its flavor, sugar and acid content, metabolites, aroma, as well as its overall texture and palatability. Furthermore, it is a rich source of important nutrients, including antioxidants, vitamins, and dietary fiber.

For the last eighteen years we have been deeply involved in a cooperative effort with our Latin American colleagues in genetics, biochemistry, physiology, and molecular biology. We have been in close contact with scientists in a number of centers and have helped to organize symposia, workshops, and so forth, in an effort to accelerate their development and make their substantial work known. These symposia in Latin America have been quite successful. The fifteenth will take place in Brasilia in 1977. At the request of colleagues, we are in the process of developing a similar series in Asia. The first very successful symposium was held in Calcutta in 1973. We were most pleased when Dr. Amir Muhammed, Vice Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Lyallpur suggested that we hold a symposium on a topic of great importance to Pakistan, Genetic Control of Diversity in Plants, under the auspices of the University of Agriculture. It is our hope that this symposium will be followed by additional ones in Pakistan as well as in other countries in the Far East. Leadership is quickly developing in the hands of outstanding scientists in these countries, and we appreciate the opportunity to cooperate with them. We are especially grateful to the Natiohal Science Foundation for makingPL- 480 funds available which made this symposium possible.

This book fully integrates the conventional and biotechnological approaches to fruit crop breeding. Individual chapters are written on a wide variety of species covering all the major fruit crops in one volume. For each crop, there is a discussion of their taxonomy and evolution, history of improvement, crossing techniques, evaluation methods, and heritability of major traits and germplasm resources. Also discussed are the most recent advances in genetic mapping and QTL (quantitative trait loci) analysis, marker assisted breeding, gene cloning, gene expression analysis, regeneration and transformation. Patenting and licensing issues are also covered.

With the detailed genomic information that is now becoming available, we have a plethora of data that allows researchers to address questions in a variety of areas. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have become a vital approach to identify candidate regions associated with complex diseases in human medicine, production traits in agriculture, and variation in wild populations. Genomic prediction goes a step further, attempting to predict phenotypic variation in these traits from genomic information. Genome-Wide Association Studies and Genomic Prediction pulls together expert contributions to address this important area of study. The volume begins with a section covering the phenotypes of interest as well as design issues for GWAS, then moves on to discuss efficient computational methods to store and handle large datasets, quality control measures, phasing, haplotype inference, and imputation. Later chapters deal with statistical approaches to data analysis where the experimental objective is either to confirm the biology by identifying genomic regions associated to a trait or to use the data to make genomic predictions about a future phenotypic outcome (e.g. predict onset of disease). As part of the Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters provide helpful, real-world implementation advice.