Fruit Breeding

Fruit breeding is the fourth volume in the proposed 11 volume series on Handbook of Plant Breeding after the initial volumes on Vegetables, Cereals and Oil Crops. Like the other volumes in the series, the volume will present information on the latest scientific information in applied plant breeding using the current advances in the field, from an efficient use of genetic resources to the impact of biotechnology in plant breeding. The book is scheduled to consist of a total number of 21 chapters, with 17 being devoted to individual crops and four chapters dealing with important aspects of fruit breeding as trends, marketing and protection of new varieties, health benefits of fruits and new crops in the horizon. Outstanding scientists for each crop species are proposed as senior authors, who may invite co-authors to contribute part of a chapter. §The book comprises temperate fruit species, nuts and other fruit crops as kiwi and grapes. A chapter on citrus breeding is included, since the crop is largely established in temperate areas where an active breeding activity is being carried out. The general chapters are dealing with those aspects of fruit breeding that are of interest for the new breeding objectives. The studies on the health benefits of fruit are new research lines in most of the species aimed at pointing out and generating data supporting the benefits of the fruit consumption, which is decreasing in developed countries. Another chapter deals with the new rules in marketing and protection, an aspect with specific characteristics in this group of species in which grafting is the most common propagation. The book concludes with a general chapter on trends in new crops in the future giving a complete overview of the future in fruit breeding.