ARS | Publication request: Plums

Submitted to: Compendium of Transgenic Crop Plants
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: June 10, 2008
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Citation: Callahan, A.M. 2008. Plums. In: Kole, C., Hall, T.C., editors. Compendium of Transgenic Crop Plants. Blackwell Publishing. p. 93-119.

Technical Abstract: The chapter entitled, "Plums" presents a review of the literature leading to the development of transgenic plums. It describes the origin of plum species on three continents, Asia, Europe and North America, and how they were cross hybridized to result in our current species. Breeding efforts have resulted in many high quality fruit cultivars that have been adapted for various local environmental and disease pressures. At present though, there have been few successes in breeding for resistance to plum pox potyvirus, a virus that not only affects the marketability of the fruit crop but the health of the tree. A number of research groups have begun to develop the techniques necessary to introduce resistance to plum pox virus through genetic engineering. These efforts have resulted in 'HoneySweet', a prune plum (Prunus domestica) that has been found to be highly resistant to plum pox virus in field trials. Work is continuing on improving the techniques used to engineer a plum pox virus resistant plum, as well as, producing more cultivars of plum with the resistance.