Marker Assisted Avocado Breeding
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
On Friday we reported on researchers at UC Riverside who helped identify the gene that controls whether an avocado tree has an A- or B-type flowering pattern. This is significant because it can enable breeders to focus on improving B-flowering types, which are generally used as pollinators. But with the gene identified, UCR staff researcher Dr. Eric Focht says they can improve them using marker-assisted selection.
Focht… “ You figure out the genetic marker for the gene, and you screen all of your seedlings for it, like right when they're just started. And then you know immediately. You don't have to wait for them to flower. Any kind of tree crop breeding takes up a lot of space. Um, so you already know ahead of time if you're looking for a B flower type, it was gonna take us half as much acreage to plant out so many of these B flower types. The process itself, though, it's a long-term process for breeding avocado. About five to six years after it's in the ground, then it will flower and have fruit. So you have to wait that period of time. So this cuts that out if we wanna just plant B flower types.”
While using gene editing to alter flower type remains many years away, the genetic marker offers breeders an immediate tool for selecting seedlings.
