A BTI-led team has identified genes enabling peaches and their wild relatives to tolerate stressful conditions – findings that could help the domesticated peach adapt to climate change.
The study, co-led by Boyce Thompson Institute faculty member Zhangjun Fei, examined the genomes of peach’s wild relatives and landraces – varieties that have adapted over a long time to specific local conditions – from seven regions in China. They identified genes responsible for peach’s tolerance to multiple environmental factors, including cold, drought and ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation levels at high altitudes.
“Our study provides many candidate genes, showing how peach has adapted to all kinds of environmental stresses and stimuli,” said Fei, who is also an adjunct professor in Cornell University’s School of Integrative Plant Science. “Breeders can use this information to develop more resilient domesticated peach trees that cope better with temperature extremes, drought and other harsh, changing conditions imposed by climate change.”
The research is described in a paper published March 9 in the journal Genome Research, with authors from BTI, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, and the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology in Barcelona. Lirong Wang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, co-led the work with Fei.
Over the past decades, climate change has made many food crops less productive, highlighting an urgent need to make them more resistant to climate stressors. Many studies have identified the genes that enable rice, soybean and other food crops to adapt to their local environments. But few studies have looked at major fruit crops like the domesticated peach (Prunus persica), which has an annual global yield of 24.5 million tons.
Many of domesticated peach’s adaptation genes have been lost as humans bred the plant to focus on flavor, sweetness and other traits. However, peach’s wild relatives and landraces harbor great genetic diversity that could provide resources for improving the resilience of their domesticated cousin.
Spring forward
Climate change has also affected many temperate flowering and fruiting species, including peach, by causing them to bloom earlier. The team analyzed 89 peach samples spanning three decades (1983-2011) from one region in China, and found that bloom dates had advanced by about 10 days over that period. They also identified a potential genetic explanation for this advance: a variation in a circadian clock gene, LNK1, which is up-regulated by warm temperatures and highly expressed during blooming.
“This finding could eventually let breeders control the bloom date of their trees, so that the peach crop is ready for harvest when the grower and the market are ready,” Fei said.
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