Research Eyes Geneitcs To Determine Apple Acidity

There is an influx of new varieties known for their crunch and sweetness. Acidity is an important component of apple breeding that takes a backseat to other traits.

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Kenong Xu, an assistant professor of tree fruit genomics at Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, is studying the exact genetic factors that determine an apple cultivar’s acidity level. This research stems from a survey of apple breeders, listing acidity as one of the top priorities to be addressed within genetics.

What Xu and his research team found was surprising. A recessive allele that determines low acidity is present in 80% or 90% of popular apple varieties, as well as a dominant high-acid allele. As these popular cultivars are crossed in breeding programs, 25% of seedlings will bear low-acid fruit in the progeny.

Xu says the implications of the project, funded through a USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant, are time and resource saving, because the low-acid progeny is useless in variety development, he says.

“We can locate that by simply using a marker we developed to look at the earlier stages without planting,” he says. “The acidity is too low and the taste would be like a potato and very flat. It’s really wasting time, money, and resources to grow that portion of seedlings in the breeding nursery or breeding block.”

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