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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #332310
Title: Malus sieversii, a valuable genetic resource for disease resistance in apple

Author
item Norelli, John
item Wisniewski, Michael
item HARSHMAN, JULIA - Washington State University
item EVANS, KATE - Washington State University

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2016
Publication Date: 8/19/2016
Citation: Norelli, J.L., Wisniewski, M.E., Harshman, J.M., Evans, K. 2016. Malus sieversii, a valuable genetic resource for disease resistance in apple. In: Proceedings of the International Fire Blight Workshop, August 24-27, 2016, Almaty, Kazakhstan. p. 138-139.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Domesticated crop cultivars inevitably represent a subset of the genetic variation found in their wild ancestors (progenitors) due to genetic bottlenecks that result during the process of crop domestication. Malus sieversii, a wild apple species native to Central Asia, is one of the ancestral progenitors of the domesticated apple. Collaborative efforts between the USDA-ARS, U.S. scientists, and Central Asian counterparts allowed several successful collection expeditions of M. sieversii in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan between 1989 and 1996. These expeditions resulted in an extensive collection of over 130,000 seeds and vegetative material collected from 44 elite accessions with phenotypes of interest (Forsline et al. 2003, Richards et al. 2009). Seeds of M. sieversii from these expeditions have been distributed to researchers worldwide and have proven to be a valuable genetic resource for apple.