Genomic Design of Abiotic Stress-Resistant Berries

Abstract

Resistance to abiotic stress is important for the adaptivity of strawberry, blueberry, red, and black raspberry crops as well as their productivity and berry quality. Climate change creates challenges to berry production and poses new requirements for berry crop breeding. New varieties should be adaptable to the specific growing conditions, as the farm has to be profitable and sustainable. Plants should be resistant to temperature fluctuations—heat, cold, and lack of moisture, adapted to artificial substrates, accumulation of salts, and heavy metals. Old cultivars have progressively been changed to new cultivars or hybrids, which are more productive, or with some tolerance to abiotic stresses, but with a narrow genetic base. The reduction of biodiversity caused the loss of genetic sources for environmental adaptability. Therefore, conventional approaches need to be complemented with advanced techniques in order to overcome the challenges of climate change and meet modern environmental and quality requirements. The advancements in berry crop research methods and possibilities of breeding programs improvement are discussed and summarized in this chapter. First, we present the main challenges to breed berries with resistance to abiotic stressors, review the peculiarities of resistance to specific environmental and climate change, then present information on the genome structure of berry plants. Traditional elements and factors of abiotic stress resistance are introduced, followed by the advances in marker-assisted and genomics-assisted breeding presenting the possibilities to increase abiotic resistance with modern genetic and genomic tools. Finally, we will illustrate how new biotechnological tools, such as interspecific hybridization, genetic engineering, and epigenetic resources are being implemented and can assist genomics-aided breeding. This information could be used in modern breeding to advance the production of quality berries.