Abstract:
FOREWORD
The presentations given orally and as posters in this Symposium can be roughly divided into three groups.
One group consisted of papers on conventional treatment of vegetable breeding and genetics.
A second group comprised those papers with a significant molecular component.
The third included papers on various aspects of germplasm evaluation.
Thirty oral presentations were made and 84 posters were displayed.
Each day's oral presentations began with a theme paper.
The theme papers and many others of those presented are published here.
Lorenzo Maggioni, in a theme paper entitled Conservation and Use of Vegetable Genetic Resources: A European Perspective, notes that although germplasm information on vegetables is not as extensive as that on the major crops, information is obtainable through increasingly available databases.
Access to data more useful to plant breeders, through cooperative evaluation projects, is increasing, which also allows for better management of ex situ collections.
James D. Kelly discusses Advances in Common Bean Improvement: Some Case Histories with Broader Applications.
He discusses four case histories to document the significant advances in breeding for disease and stress resistance and yield in the U.S. and developing countries.
These include: a) breeding for yield increase and control of white mold through a canopy avoidance mechanism, b) pyramiding genes for resistance to multiple diseases, c) cluster mapping and co-evolution of anthracnose and rust, and 4) approaches to alleviation of diseases and disorders in Latin America.
Laurent Lecomte and colleagues present a paper on Recent Advances in Molecular Breeding: The Example of Tomato Breeding for Flavor Traits.
Thirty-seven QTL involving flavor volatiles, chemical characters, firmness and other traits were evaluated and QTL were identified for all traits.
A marker assisted backcross program to introgress favorable traits from cherry tomato into elite lines was initiated.
In a paper Back to the Future of Food: Phytonutrients and Quality in Vegetable Crops for the 21st Century, Irwin Goldman stresses the historical importance of vegetables, both medicinally and as food sources.
Sometimes the medicinal use came first.
At present, there is increasing awareness of the usefulness of vegetables in protecting human health, and an increasing understanding of the way secondary compounds function in achieving this protection.
A review of these and the other papers presented here reminds us of the tremendous reach of horticultural science, both in the crops covered and of the individual sciences.
As examples, Park and Crosby discuss RAPD markers linked to male sterility in melon; Punja and Chen studied transgenic carrots with fungal and herbicide tolerances; Mcharo and LaBonte used discriminant analysis to confirm linkage between QTL and AFLP markers in sweetpotato; Grube established a genetic basis for lettuce drop resistance; Song, Gusmini and Wehner screened watermelon germplasm for gummy stem blight resistance; Hou created Chinese cabbage germplasm with cytoplasmic sterility, using asymmetric cell fusion; Kamenetsky and colleagues evaluated wild garlic germplasm for important traits including fertility; and Kim and others mapped QTL associated with Phytophthora resistance in chilli.
We become appreciative of the number of vegetables important to the peoples of the world and of the scientific tools we can call upon to study them.
J.D. McCreight and E.J. Ryder
Co-conveners
PREFACE
The papers contained in this volume of Acta Horticulturae report the proceedings of a symposium on Advances in Vegetable Breeding.
Keynote speakers and authors of selected contributed oral and poster presentations were given the opportunity to submit a manuscript for publication.
These manuscripts were reviewed by the symposium editors and other referees.
Only those papers judged suitable for publication following the authors consideration of reviewer suggestions appear in this volume of Acta Horticulturae.
The ISHS acknowledges and appreciates the contribution of all editors and reviewers.
They have made a significant contribution to assuring the quality of this publication.
The ISHS Board of Directors
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