Peach breeding, genetics and new cultivar trends

The 20th century may well be called “Golden Age of Peach Breeding”. Indeed, the advances in terms of the peach industry as a whole and the enhancement of fruit quality in particular bear the stamp of an unparalleled, and probably unrepeatable, enterprise of historical import. It was an epoch dominated by cultivars bred in the USA in response to such market demands as high yield, large size and firm yellow flesh. Yet the focus of the present overview shall concentrate on current trends in the industry and the main objectives being pursued in breeding programs, including seasonality, lowered chilling requirements, fruit quality and novel fruit types, tree habit, canopy architecture, adaptability and disease resistance, as well as advances in peach genetics and genomics like monogenic and polygenic control (QTLs and RGAs) of certain agronomic traits. Indeed, these latter tools may prove useful for marker-assisted selection (MAS) in achieving important breeding goals and potentially promoting the development of novel cultivars better suited to growers’ and consumers’ demands. Our purview will also include the great number of cultivars being grown around the world, with particular emphasis on developments in California, France and Italy.