Mango breeding and the potential of modern biology

Classical breeding of fruit trees is a rather inefficient and slow procedure. However, all current mango cultivars result from either random selection or classical breeding. The current interesting mango selections originating from the Israeli breeding project include: 'Shelly', a round, colored, good tasting fruit with a long shelf-life and 'Naomi' an attractive red-orange colored fruit with a delicate taste. One of the modern breeding methodologies is based on the application of DNA markers, construction of genetic maps and identification of linkage between DNA markers and the genes of interest. Currently, we are trying to discover SNPs both in-silico and by direct sequencing and to genotype them using the MassArray method. We are applying SNPs in tomato for the assessment of biodiversity and for gene hunting. We have applied AFLP to study the genetic relationship among 16 mango cultivars and seven mango rootstocks and for the construction of a genetic map. The average Band-Sharing for mango is 81%. The preliminary map which was constructed using the progeny of a cross between 'Keitt' and 'Tommy-Atkins' consists of 13 linkage groups, defined by 34 AFLP polymorphic bands and covers about 160 centi-Morgans. Future developments of horticultural crops are expected to be based on molecular biology and genomics. Examples of modern technologies as well as examples of biotechnological applications in plants will be discussed.