Origins of the Stone Fruit Species

Natural forests of wild apricot trees are expected to carry a higher level of resilience to pathogen attacks and climate changes thanks to their richer genetic diversity. A series of PPV inoculation tests was carried out on the apricot trees, as part of the four-year STONE project, to test this assumption.

Genetic markers during the testing revealed the highest levels of diversity in Central Asian and Chinese wild and cultivated apricots, which confirmed Decroocq’s suspicion that the original species can be traced back to this region. “There was a clear branching out of cultivated apricots between Chinese and Western varieties or ‘accessions’. We also noted distinct differences between cultivated and wild apricots.”

After some analysis, the STONE team now believes apricots underwent two independent ‘domestication events’ stemming from the same wild, ancestral gene pool. A genetic subdivision was also noted in apricots native to Central Asia, which showed higher resistance to sharka.

“These findings help us understand the domestication history of cultivated apricots and provide valuable evidence that a rich and exploitable source of genetic diversity and disease-resistance lies hidden in wild apricot varieties from Central Asia,” says Decroocq.

That is also potentially good news for producers in the € 260 billion (US$274 billion) a year global fruit and vegetable processing market.

These and other key outputs of the project’s research, such as a phytosanitary survey of fruit tree species in the Caucasian region, and the identification of key genes involved in peach fruit quality, would not have been possible without the EU staff exchange grant. “It has provided a chance to advance this little-known field and one day develop more effective disease-resistant stone fruit production,” concludes Decroocq.