Apple is known as king of temperate fruits / symbol of health / premier fruit of the world

Cultivated apple Malus X domestica are diploids (2n =34) and few are triploids (2n=51) and ancestor of it is Malus sylvestris

Apple originated from South western Asia and belongs to family Rosaceae sub family pomoideae

It is a deciduous fruit tree mostly grown in temperate region of the world

Himachal Pradesh is known as Apple bowl of India

Among the fruit apple has long storage life

Major sugar present in apple is sorbitol

Type of fruit is Pome

Edible portion is fleshy thalamus (mesocarp)

Cultivated apple is functional diploids (2n=2x=34)Ancestor of cultivated apple is Malus

sylvestriesSucker free species Malus siversiiApomixis species Malus sieboldiiIndigenous to Himalayas : Malus

baccata var himalacia , M. sikkimmensis

Crab apples cultivated as ornamental trees for their attractive flowers and fruits

Resistant to scab : M. floribunda , M. atrosanguina

Resistant to powdhery mildew and Codling moth : M. zumi

Resistant to wooly apple aphid : M. hupehensis

Apple almost have a chilling requirement of 1000 hrs at or below 7.2 ⁰C temperature , low chilling variety required < 800 hrs below 7 ⁰C

In India ,11-33% pollinizing trees are recommended for regular cropping

Optimum temperature for pollen germination and fruit setting is 21.1-26.7 ⁰C but in summer the av temp is around 21-24 ⁰C during the active growth

GERMPLASM RESOURCES• Malus collection has 6734 total accessions, of

which 5226 are trees in the field and 1508 are seedlots

• Good collection of Germplasm has been collected in 19 research centre out of which 11 are located in North West Himalayan region such as :

NBPGR , Phagli ( New Delhi) CITH, Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) IARI , New Delhi Fruit Research centre , Shalimar Hill Fruit Research centre , in Chaubattia and

Chakrata , U.P Himachal Agricultural University , H.P

Important Categories of Apple Germplasmcategories Important cultivar

Non spur type

Tydeman’s worcestor, Stark Red Rome, Skyline supreme, Red Delicious , Rose Red Delicious , Akane , Red Baron

Spur type Starkrimson, Sky spur, Mc spur, Spur type, Golden Delicious, Bisbee, Silver spur, Gold spur, Red Delicious

Low chilling Vared, Anna, Michael, Schlomit, Maayan, H-1, Tropical Beauty, Rome Beauty, Kidd’s Orange Red

Scab Resistant

Star Prize, Prima, Priscilla, Quinte, Liberty

BREEDING OBJECTIVE Since , apple is a composite tree

consisting of rootstock and scion , there is also need to develop rootstock with the aim to manipulate growth , suitable for a specific location as well as for good reproductive ability .

To involved varieties red in colour with early maturity, high yield, superior dessert and storage quality and resistant to diseases(scab) and pests

ROOTSTOCK BREEDING To develop woolly apple aphid resistant

rootstock using a Northern Spy as a source of resistance

To focussed on productiveness and tree size control

Adaptation to soil and pest problems It shows considerable resistance to crown

rot and winter hardy like P-1, P-2 , P-16 , P-22 from M-4 X Common Antonovka

Recent rootstock research comprises :i. Development of new dwarfing, winter

hardy, efficiently cropping clones, using cross breeding technique

ii. Evaluation of recently developed dwarfing rootstocks of Czechslovakia and USSR origin.

The present breeding programme is with primary focus to study the genetics on heritability of vigour, rooting, feathering, earliness of bud break and efficiency of cropping.

Evaluation research is mainly aimed to test the efficiency of propagation, influence on the growth of a cultivar, precocity of bearing, cropping efficiency and resistance to pests and diseases

Special features of rootstock and its characteristic

Category

Rootstocks

Features

Dwarfing M9 Suitable for HDP in flat and irrigated areas only

Semi - dwarf

M4, M7, M106,M24

HDP , Resistant to wooly apple aphid

Semi- vigorous

M111, MM104

Drought tolerant and rest. to wooly aphid

Vigorous Merton 793

Early fruiting, rest. to wooly aphid and collar rot

Ultra dwarf M27 Suitable for HDP

• MI series (Merton Immune) released from East Malling Research Station (EMRS) , Kent, England

• MM series (Malling Merton) released from John Innes Instituites, England

• MM series specifically bred for wooly apple aphid

• All rootstocks of MM series are rest. To wooly apple aphid

• East Malling Long Ashton (EMLA) series of rootstock is rest. to viruses

BREEDING OF SCION CULTIVAR• Fruit appearance -fruits should have

attractive good colour, a regular shape and a skin free from russet eg : Northern spy, cv like Jonagold and Elstar

• Fruit size – 65 mm diameter is generally accepted, but is the aim for regular fruit size of 65-75 mm dia eg : triploid var like Crispin , Holstein , Jonagold etc

• Eating quality – prefers cv having medium acid (3.4-3.6)% and high sugar content(14-16)%

• Fruit colourEurope – Golden delicious, jonagold, ElstarNorth American –Golden delicious, Red delicious, Mc Intosh (low acid/ low sugar and good culinary apples)India –Red delicious, Royal delicious • Yield – it should have high yield cv

like greensleeves, jupiter, Romus-2, Himekami

• Pest and disease resistance viz Malus floribunda, Malus zumi, Malus hupehensis.

• Early maturity and have long shelf life

• Cold hardiness – Honeycrisp, Lobo, Katjo, Mantet, Fireside, Wealthy, Yellow Transparent

• Winter chilling requirements – Anna, Ein shemer , schlor , Mollie delicious, Adina

• Season of flowering – late flowering considered as the best as it avoid from disastrous spring frost

• Duration of juvenile period • Season of ripening

• Compact columnar cultivars , new cultivar which has been selected at East Malling can be grown as natural cordons without pruning

• Mutation breeding , isolation of spontaneous somatic mutations in apple has play a significant role in the production of new apple cultivar eg Dutch plantation of Elstar shows more coloured than its mother tree

Limitation in Conventional BreedingSlow and lengthyLong juvenile periodSelf incompatibilityPolygenic control of most of the

horticultural important traitsLarge population required to recover

recombinants

Breeding Technique Floral biologyo Flowers of apple cultivars and seedling vary

considerably in shape, size and in colour from white to deep pink

o They are borne in cymose clusters on fairly short pedicels, usually on spur type growth but in some instances from terminal or lateral buds of the previous season’s growth

o The typical flower consists of 5 petals, calyx of 5 sepals, about 20 stamens and pistil which divides into 5 styles

o Ovary has 5 carpels , each usually containing 2 ovules , so max seed content is 10 but some cv have more

o Liberty and Northern spy usually have 12 to 18 seeds and ottawa 3 rootstocks often has 20 to 30 seeds

Pollinationo Cross pollination mainly done by insect particularly beeso Some cultivars act as pollinizers are :Tydeman’s Early Worcestor : One of the earliest varieties and act as pollinizer for Delicious varieties. Lord Lambourne : Hybrid between James Greeves x Worcestor Peermans’s. Granny Smith, Red Gold, Golden Delicious Yellow Newton, Mc Intosh , Early Shanburry , Winter Banana, Starkspur Golden , Golden Spur

Methods of Crop Improvement

• Introduction• Selection• Hybridisation• Mutation • Biotechnology

Methods of ImprovementIntroductionIn apple lots of emphasis laid on introduction and selection during last decades. Apples are introduced for different purpose such as :a) spur type cultivar - At regional research station , Mashobra (H.P), 12 varieties are introduced through NBPGR New Delhi in 1980 Red spur delicious, Golden spur delicious, Oregon spur, Red chief, Miller, Sturdee spur, white spur , Stark crimson

b) Colour spots – Royal red , Vance delicious. Top red, Skyline supreme, Red Deliciousc) Low chilling variety – Introduced through NBPGR to RRS , Phagi , ShimlaVared, Michael , Tropical beauty, Parlin beauty, Mayan, Schlomit, Hybrid-1d) Scab resistant var – Prima , Priscilla , Liberty, Florina, Macfree, Freedom, Coop-12e) Early maturing var – Yandik onskoe , Papisonka canninga

• Introduced through NBPGR , New-Delhi, in apple growing states

• Of the scab resistant variety co-op-12 has shown better performance as an Early sub- acidic variety whereas Florina promised as a coloured sweet varieties

• However none of these compared favourably well with popular delicious and its commercial spots , it is therefore logical that some of these tracts are incorporated in our commercial variety

• Sufficient attempt have not been made to introduced low chilling apple cv in N.Indian plains and South India .

• From early introductions cv such as Tropical beauty and Perlin beauty were found to be best w.r.t. productivity and fruit quality

• Some cv of Sub – Tropical apples are Maayan , Michael, Schlomit and Vared where introduction from Israel and are under evaluation

Selection• In Horticultural Experimental Station

(TNAU) in Kodaikanal selected 1 variety i,e KKL-1 called as Kodaikanal beauty , this is a selection from Parlin beauty

• Many of existing commercial cv which originated as chance seedlings are Golden Delicious , Baldwin and Granny Smith

2. Hybridisation Apple improvement work has been going on a) The Regional Fruit

Research Station , Mashobra, H.P

b) F.R.S. , Shalimar, J and K

c) Horticulture and Experimental Training centre , Chaubattia , U.P

Resulting in a no. of released of new varieties, work was initiated in Kashmir (1956) to combine high dessert qualityof delicious group with good keeping quality of Ambri.• Two hybrids such as Lal Ambri and

Sunehri were released• Similarly work has been also initiated

in H.P. (1960) as a result hybrids Ambred , Ambstarking and Ambrich have been developed . Subsequently hybrid, Ambroyal was also developed

• Work on apple improvement was started

at Chaubattia (1970 ) to developed Early maturing cultivar with good dessert quality

• Two promising hybrids were involved Chaubattia Princess and Chaubattia Anupam

• Some crosses were also made to developed scab resistant cv

• Two outstanding hybrids Firdous and Shireen were developed to adaptation

• Variety developed with parentage and important characters are as follows :

1. Jammu and KashmirLal Ambri – Red Delicious X Ambri ,

Ambri with red colourSunehri – Ambri X Golden Delicious ,

Ambri with colour of Golden Delicious2. Himachal PradeshAmbred – Red Delicious X Ambri-57 ,

keeping quality good, low incidence of powdhery mildew , soothy blotch and scab

Ambstarking – Starking Delicious X Ambri-81 , tolerant to scab

Ambroyal – Starking Delicious X Ambri-84 , semi dwarf tree , semi spur type and having good dessert quality

Ambrich – Richared X Ambri-15 , semi dwarf, semi spur, good dessert quality, tolerant to scab

3. Chaubattia , U.PChaubattia Princess – Red Delicious X

Early Shunberry , early ripe in last week of June , fruit with deep red streaks on pale background, very sweet and good keeping quality.

Chaubattia Anupam – Red Delicious X Early Shunberry, ripen in second week of July , fruit skin with shiny red streakes with red blush on pale background

Inheritance of traits A no. of important horticultural traits are

ccontrolled by major genes and therefore incorporated in breeding programme for the development of new cvs

large no. of important characters of apple under polygene control

Powdhery mildew single major genes PL1 and PL2 , M. zumi and M. robusta

M. hupehensis has been reported to transmit resistance to woolly apple aphid and resistance to codling moth is incorporated from M. zumi

Mutation A bud sport is a mutation arising in a cell

from which a bud developed It affects growth habit particularly the

spur or compact type which produce compact or dwarfish

This is the basis for bud selection to maintain the integrity of the cultivar

The rate of single gene mutations can be increased by irradiation with X- ray, Gamma ray and thermal neutrons

Bud sport – due to mutation , Red allister/ Aed Elster ,natural mutant of allister

• Vance Delicious : Bud mutant of Delicious. • Top Red : Bud sport of Shot Well Delicious• Skyline Supreme Delicious : Bud mutant of

Starking Delicious.• Gold Spur Delicious : Bud mutant of Golden

Delicious. This variety is recommended as pollinizer for all spur types.

• Red Spur Delicious : It is a variant tree in Starking Delicious orchard.

• Red Chief : Bud sport of Delicious

Sterility and Incompatibility These are the two main causes of

unfruitfulness in apple Apples has Gametophytic

incompatibility whereby the pollen tube growth is arrested in the style

Variety like Cox’s orange pippin , Golden russet and Northern spy

Apomixis Facultative apomixis is characteristic

of a number of Malus spp that are probably of hybrid origin, but does not appear to occur among the cultivated apple CULTIVARS PLOIDY LEVELM. sikkimensis triplod

M. sargentii tetraploid

M. Coronaria , M. hupehensis, M. lancefolia, M. toringoides

Triplod, tetraploid

M. sieboldii Diploid, triploid, tetraploid, pentaploid

Parthenocarpy The two apetalous cvs bear annual

crops of parthenocarpic seedless fruit but produce seeded fruits following hand pollination . Cvs such as Spencer Seedless and Ohio - 3

Biotechnology Protoplast culture – M9 and Sparten Moleculars markers – Rome Beauty

cross with White Angel using RAPDTransformation – Greensleeves ,

Royal Gala , etc

Special Features of Apple Varieties1. Yellow colour variety- Golden Yellow

delicious , Lodi , Grimes Golden2. Green colour variety – Granny Smith

, Tippin , Gold Russet , Lord derby3. Cooking variety – White dotted red ,

Howget wonder , Baldwin4. Lowest chilling variety – Dorcett

(100 hr)5. Processing variety – Tropical

beauty , Parlin beauty

6) Intergeneric hybrid – Pamapples ( Pear X Apple ) developed by Ellis Marks (1952)in John Innes Centre7) Resistant to woolly aphid – Northern spy8) Natural mutant – Red Elstar ( Parent cv Elstar)

9) Ambri – Indigeneous variety of India10) Gala and Fuzi – Sub- tropical varieties of India11) Varieties tolerant to Alternate bearing – Gala , Rome , Pink lady , Finger gold

a) gala b) Fuzi

c) pink – lady lady lady

Recommended varieties of apple in different states Himachal PradeshEARLYRed Junet, Delicious, Stark Earliest, Red Astrakhan, King of PippinsMID EARLYRed Delicious, Royal Delicious, Golden Delicious, Rome Beauty, Rich-a-Red, Vance Delicious, BaldwinLATERus Pippin, Granny smith, Winter Banana, Golden Delicious, Yellow Newton

Uttaranchal and Uttar PradeshEARLYRed Astrakhan, Beauty of Bath, Early Shan burry, Summer Golden, Pippin, Fenny Benoni MID EARLYKing of Tom king, King of Pippins, Winter Banana, King David, Jonathan, Red delicious, Mc Intosh, Cox’s Orange, Pippin, Rich-a- RedLATERick’s Pleasant, Yellow Newton, Esopursa Burgs, Rome Beauty, Rymer, Buckingham, Golden Delicious

Jammu and KashmirEARLYIrish peach, Benoni, StarkrimsonMID EARLYAmerican Mother, Razakwar, Jonathan, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Red Gold, Queens Apple, Roma Beauty, Scarlet SiberianLATEApirouge, Kerry Pippin, King Pippin, Sunheri Chamure, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Yellow Newton, Ambri Baldwin

Adams pearmain Arkansas black

Arlet swiss gourmet Ashmeads Golden gala

Baldwin Belle de Boskoop

Black Oxford

Blue pearman

Braeburn Cornish gilliflower

Cortland Cox orange pippins Crispin mutsu

Duchess EmpireGranny smith

Fameuse Freedom Fuji Gala

Golden delicious Golden Dorsett HolsteinGraveinstein

Honeycrisp Idared Jonagold Jonathan

King David Upenn Lady SweetLiberty Lodi Macoun

Maiden Blush Mc Intosh Northern Spy Ozark Gold Paradise

Pink Lady Pound Ralls Genet

Rambo Ramey york Red Astrachan

Apple Red Delicious

Apple Red Cort Reinett

Rhode Island Greening

Rome Beauty Roxburry russet

Seek no further Smoke House Sops of wine Spigold

Spitzenburg Starkey Starking Wealthy

Williams pride Winesap Winter Banana Wolf river

Yellow Newton Pippin

Yellow Transparent Golden russ

SheepnoseKnobbed Cider

DabeyFranklin

Jubilee

Chenango strawberry

Fukunisluki Freyberg

Kandil sinap

Doctor

Lamb Abbey Pearmain

Black twig

Future Thrust :i. Improving productivity and quality of produce

from existing area under horticultural cropsii. Improving supply of improved varietiesiii. Enhancement of exportsiv. Strengthening infrastructure for programme

implementation and databasev. Transfer of improved tech and its adoption vi. Resistance to various diseases , a number

have greatly improved storage life , improved structural quality , winter hardiness , different tree forms

vii. some of these limitations can overcome by noval strategies from advances in biotechnology

Thank You

BYCh. Allaylay Devi