Apricot breeding: Update and perspectives

Apricot seems to be a species still strongly susceptible to genetic improvement, under the aspects of environmental adaptability, resistance to diseases, and fruit quality, with perspectives also in improving fruit for specific processing products (juice, dry fruit, canning). The biggest challenge undoubtedly concerns disease resistance. About brown rot there is a double problem of resistance in buds (flowers) and in fruits, not regulated by the same genes. Still little is known about the sources of resistance, also due to the strong interference with the environmental conditions. Reliable markers associated to resistance are still to be found. More promising is the situation about Sharka virus. This disease, although from the epidemiological stand point is more dangerous than brown rot, seems to be more easily genetically controlled, since the sources of resistance are known and their transmission rather simple. Moreover, reliable protocols for indexing have been fined tuned. Some resistant cultivars are already available, although not always of commercial value, they could very interesting as parents. The strong influence of the climatic conditions on the flower differentiation are difficult to control genetically and require the selection is carried out under the same environment where the future cultivar will be introduced. On the other hand, since a strong tendency exists in the market to assign an extra-value to 'locally' and 'safely' grown crops, apricot is probably one of the few fruits closest to an image of an 'healthy' fruit commodity. This is due to its low environmental plasticity (that makes it practically impossible to be economically grown outside of restricted areas, even recurring to massive spraying program) and to its short fruiting cycle, that allows avoiding most of the pest and then the use of pesticides.