APPLE

Cultivated apple has been classified as pumila group.

Majority of the cultivated apples are diploids (2n=34) and few are triploids (2n=51).

Delicious group of apples are very popular and occupy 50-70 per cent area in the

states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and North- East hills.
Breeding objectives

Apple is grown as a composite tree consisting of rootstock, scion and occasionally

interstem.

Thus genetic improvement must involve both rootstock and scion.

The scion breeding objectives are to evolve varieties, red in colour with early

maturity, high yield, superior dessert and storage quality and resistance to scab.

Besides, a new wave of clonal rootstocks capable of surviving under wide range of

environmental conditions, inducing precocity, enhancing productivity and fruit

quality in scion are required to be bred.

Genetics of apple
Malus has 25 to 30 species and several sub-species, many of which are cultivated as
ornamental trees for their profuse blossoms and attractive fruits.
Many of the species intercross freely and semi self incompatibility is common.
Trees grown from collection of Malus are frequently inter-specific or inter-varietal hybrids.
The cultivated apple is botanically Malus domestica Borkh.
The majority of cultivated apples are diploids (2n=34).
There has been a belief that they are complex polyploids, being partly tetraploids and
partly hexaploids with the basic number of x=7 which is common in Rosaceae.
The hypothesis is based on the associations and behavior of chromosomes and six sets of
three chromosomes.
So, they are functionally diploids. Among the cultivars, there are also triploids (2n=51).
Triploids appear to be more common in cultivated apples, accounting for about

10 per cent of the commonly grown cultivars.

Some triploid varieties are Baldwin, Gravenstein, Rhode Island Greening,

Blenheim Orange and Mutsu, Jupiter and Jonagold, these are more vigorous and

tend to have larger fruits but produce poor pollen and require diploids to pollinate

them.

These are useless as parents for breeding as they produce few seeds and give rise

to weak seedlings.
Sterility and Incompatibility

Sterility and incompatibility are two main causes of unfruitfulness in apple.

The generational sterility is caused by the failure of any of the processes concerned

with the development of pollen, embryo sac, embryo and endosperm.

This is common in triploids and some diploids.

Gagnieu (1951) concluded that the segregation suggests a simple disomic inheritance

of four different and possibly allelomorphic genes P1 P2 P3 and P4.

Sexual incompatibility which is due to the failure of the pollen, although functional, to

grow down the style and bring about fertilization is widespread in the apple.

Self incompatibility is particularly common, although cases of cross incompatibility are

also known.
Apomixis

Facultative apomixis is characteristic of a number of Malus species which are probably of

hybrid origin but does not appear to occur among the cultivated apples.

The apomictic species which have been investigated are polyploids.

Malus sikkimensis (Hook). Koehne is a triploid, M.coronaria (L.)

Mill., M.hupenhensis (Pamp.)Rehd., M.lancefolia Rehd. M.platycarpa Rehd., M.toringoide

s (Rehd.,) Hugs are known in triploid and tetraploid forms.

M. sergenti Rehd is known in diploid, triploid, tetraploid and pentaploid forms.

Under normal circumstances, these species reproduce themselves freely by

apomictic seeds but most of them can produce sexual hybrids if crossed with

sexual diploids.

Seedlings from these apomictic species are not necessarily identical and a

certain amount of variation can be found.

The importance of this character in Malus species is that seedlings of some are

sufficiently uniform to enable their use as rootstocks which are virus – free.
Introduction and Selection

Spur type cultivars

At Regional Fruit Research Station, Mashobra, spur varieties introduced through

the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi during the eighties are

under evaluation.

These varieties include Red Spur Delicious, Golden Spur Delicious, Miller’s

Sturdeespur, Oregon Spur and Red Chief of which Red Spur Delicious has been

found to be promising.

In UP, cultivars Red Spur and Oregon Spur were introduced from Italy and are

being multiplied for evaluation.

Colour Sports

Colour sports like Royal Red, Vance Delicious, Top Red, Skyline Superme and Red

Delicious were introduced in HP. The cultivars Royal Red, Vance Delicious and Top

Red and Skyline Supreme Red Delicious were found to be promising.

Early varieties

Among the early varieties introduced at NBPGR Regional Station, Phagli, Shimla, EC

32221, EC 38683. Yandik-Ovskoe and Papisovka Canniaga are promising

Low Chilling Varieties
Work at NBPGR Regional Station, Phagli, Shimla indicated that the cultivars Vered,
Michal, Maayan, Shilomit, Hybrid-1 and Tropical Beauty were found to be promising for
cultivation under mid and low hill conditions. In the mid hills of HP, the cultivars
Tropical Beauty and Parlins Beauty were found to be the best in respect of yield and
fruit quality.

Scab resistant varieties

Scab is a serious disease of apple and none of the commercial varieties are resistant to
it. Although some resistant varieties have been evolved in other countries, none of
these compares favourably with the popular Delicious and its commercial sports. The
scab resistant varieties Prima, Priscilla, Sir Prize, Jonafree, Liberty and Coop.12
introduced from USA are under evaluation at Regional Fruit Research Station,
Mashobra and Bajaura in HP selected and are being evaluated under different
agroclimatic conditions.

Selection of Parents
Most of the quality traits like size, shape, cropping, etc., are under polygenic control.
Thus, when two cultivars are crossed, there will be a continuous Improvement.
Hybridization
Selection of Parents
Most of the quality traits like size, shape, cropping, etc., are under polygenic control.
Thus, when two cultivars are crossed, there will be a continuous range of expression of
these characters in the seedlings and will not segregate into discrete categories.
Williams (1959) calculated that the percentage of desirable seedlings that can be
expected as the main product of an apple breeding programme for polygenically
controlled characters is seldom more than 40 per cent and for every additional
character, the figure rapidly decreases.
Thus, for a programme in which the main objective is polygenically controlled mildew
resistances, size of fruit, season of maturity, flavor and colour of skin, a reasonable
estimate would be 40,20,20,10 per cent respectively.
New Varieties
The modern breeding, objectives are breeding of varieties with high yield,
superior dessert and storage quality, disease and pest resistance.
Breeding work on apple has been in progress at Regional Fruit Research Station,
Mashobra in Himachal Pradesh, Fruit Research Station, Shalimar in Kashmir and
Horticultural Experiments and Training Centre, Chaubattia in UP.
The major objectives were better shelf-life, early maturity, high dessert quality
and scab resistance.
Shelf-life and dessert quality

All the popular Delicious group of cultivars ripens at the same time and thus cause glut in

the market.

With a view to combine high dessert quality with good keeping quality, work was initiated

in Kashmir in 1956.

Two hybrids, Lal Ambri (Red Delicious x Ambri) and agold (Ambri x Golden Delicious) were

released.

Work on similar lines was started in HP in 1960 (Chand, 1962). As a result three

promising hybrids, namely, Ambred, Ambstarking, and Ambrich were selected.

Subsequently, hybrid Ambroyal was also selected.

a) Ambred (Red Delicious x Ambri b) Ambstarking (Starking Delicious
157) x Ambri 81)
Tree is tall, maturity in second Tree is vigorous, tall and open,
week of September; fruits medium maturity in second week of
in size, conical, symmetrical, bright September; fruits medium in size,
red stripes over barium yellow round, conical symmetrical and
ground; dots obscure; skin uniform in shape, currant red
medium in thickness, smooth and streaks over chrome yellow ground;
glossy; flesh whitish, crisp, firm dots numerous and conspicuous;
aromatic and juicy, keeping quality skin rough, smooth, flesh whitish
is good up to three months in air firm, crisp, tough and juicy; keeping
cooled storage. It has low quality comparable with Starking
incidence of powdery mildew, Delicious. It is tolerant
sooty blotch and apple scab. to apple scab.
c) Ambroyal (Starking Delicious x d) Ambrich (Richard x Ambri 15):
Ambri 84) Tree is semi-dwarf, semi-spur type;
Tree is semi-dwarf and spreading. spreading drooping fruit maturity in
Fruit maturity is in third week of second week of September, fruit
September; fruits medium in size, medium size, round , conical in shape,
conical in shape; skin thin. smooth, symmetrical sides equal and uniform,
red streaks on yellow ground; flesh skin thick, smooth with
white, soft, sweet, juicy with good chrysanthemum crimson wash; flesh
dessert quality. Storage quality is whitish, firm crisp, sub acid aromatic
comparable with Starking Delicious. and juicy with good dessert quality.
Tree is moderately susceptible to
powdery mildew and tolerant
to apple scab.
•Early and dessert quality
•Work was started at Chaubattia in 1970 and two promising hybrids Chaubattia
Princess and Chaubattia Anupam were evolved.
•Both these are from crosses of Red Delicious x Early Shanburry.
•Chaubattia Princess ripens during last week of June to the 1st week of July.
•The tree is of medium vigour with upright growth habit.
•Fruits are medium in size, regular and conical in shape.
•Fruit skin is thin and smooth with deep red streaks on pale background.
•Flesh is creamy white, crisp in texture, firm juicy and very sweet.
•TSS is 14 per cent and acidity 0.22 per cent.
•The fruit pressure at maturity is 14 to 15 1b/sq. inch.
•Keeping quality is quite good.
Scab resistance

During 1983, crosses Gala x 58553, Liberty x Delicious, Gala x 6356-22 Gala x

6143-1, Freedom x delicious, Gala x Prima and Freedom (open pollinated) were

made at Mashobra and the hybrid seedlings are being evaluated.

Out breeding and Backcrossing
Dominant single gene resistance in a Malus species can be transferred to the
cultivated apple by a modified backcross procedure to avoid inbreeding.
The method involves crossing the wild species with a large fruited cultivar.
The resistance F1s is heterozygous and the best ones are selected and backcrossed
to a good cultivar and their progeny yields 50 per cent resistant seedlings.
The best of these are again backcrossed to a good cultivar until all the good
qualities of the cultivated apple are recovered and the resistance from the wild
species retained.
This avoids inbreeding by alternating different cultivars for the recurrent quality
parent and eliminates loss of vigour and incompatibility problems.
Mutation Breeding
Work on induction and selection of desirable bud mutants was taken up at
Horticulture Experiment and Training Centre, Chaubattia in 1973.
As a result, four mutants with distinctly compact habit and better keeping quality of
fruits were released.