Developing a new tree-fruit cultivar is a long process that begins with breeders deciding which specific traits growers will want 15, 20 or even 30 years into the future. Those predictions have become increasingly difficult with the unpredictability of climate change and its effects on rainfall patterns, seasonal temperatures, disease and pest pressure, timing of spring blooming and fruit ripening, and ultimately fruit quality.“It is a lot of crystal-balling for sure,” said James Luby, professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Horticultural Science and director of its breeding program.Despite the uncertainty, breeding programs and research march forward. The Cherry Adaptation to Climate Change (A3C) group at the plant biology and breeding department of France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, for instance, is studying the genes involvedin chill requirements, flowering times and crack resistance in sweet cherries, and they are developing methods to breed for those traits they think will be important as temperatures and precipitation alter with climate change in the future. Elsewhere, researchers in the U.S., China and Spain just published results of a joint study identifying genes that help peaches tolerate cold, drought and ultraviolet radiation levels, as a wav to prepare for coming climatic conditions.
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