Pear genetics: Recent advances, new prospects, and a roadmap for the future

Jiaming Li; Mingyue Zhang; Xiaolong Li; Awais Khan; Satish Kumar; Andrew Charles Allan; Kui Lin-Wang; Richard Victor Espley; Caihong Wang; Runze Wang; Cheng Xue; Gaifang Yao; Mengfan Qin; Manyi Sun; Richard Tegtmeier; Hainan Liu; Weilin Wei; Meiling Ming; Shaoling Zhang; Kejiao Zhao; Bobo Song; Jiangping Ni; Jianping An; Schuyler S Korban; Jun Wu

doi:10.1093/hr/uhab040

Pear genetics: Recent advances, new prospects, and a roadmap for the future

Hortic Res. 2022 Jan 5:9:uhab040. doi: 10.1093/hr/uhab040.

Authors

Jiaming Li¹, Mingyue Zhang², Xiaolong Li¹, Awais Khan³, Satish Kumar⁴, Andrew Charles Allan⁵, Kui Lin-Wang⁵, Richard Victor Espley⁵, Caihong Wang⁶, Runze Wang¹, Cheng Xue², Gaifang Yao⁷, Mengfan Qin¹, Manyi Sun¹, Richard Tegtmeier³, Hainan Liu¹, Weilin Wei¹, Meiling Ming¹, Shaoling Zhang¹, Kejiao Zhao¹, Bobo Song¹, Jiangping Ni¹, Jianping An², Schuyler S Korban⁸, Jun Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ Center of Pear Engineering Technology Research, State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Horticulture Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai-An, Shandong 271018, China.
³ Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology Section, Cornell University, Geneva, NY 14456, USA.
⁴ Hawke's Bay Research Centre, The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Havelock North 4157, New Zealand.
⁵ The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
⁶ College of Horticulture, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266109, China.
⁷ School of Food and Biological Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, 230009 Hefei, China.
⁸ Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.

Abstract

Pear, belonging to the genus Pyrus, is one of the most economically important temperate fruit crops. Pyrus is an important genus of the Rosaceae family, subfamily Maloideae, and has at least 22 different species with over 5000 accessions maintained or identified worldwide. With the release of draft whole-genome sequences for Pyrus, opportunities for pursuing studies on the evolution, domestication, and molecular breeding of pear, as well as for conducting comparative genomics analyses within the Rosaceae family, have been greatly expanded. In this review, we highlight key advances in pear genetics, genomics, and breeding driven by the availability of whole-genome sequences, including whole-genome resequencing efforts, pear domestication, and evolution. We cover updates on new resources for undertaking gene identification and molecular breeding, as well as for pursuing functional validation of genes associated with desirable economic traits. We also explore future directions for "pear-omics".