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Natural hybridization, introgression breeding, and cultivar improvement in the genus Actinidia

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Abstract

China is the original home of kiwifruit which are derived from the species complex Actinidia chinensis. A short domestication history of a little more than 100 years characterizes kiwifruit as a unique fruit crop whose cultivar improvement is heavily dependent on exploitation and selection of wild resources. Actinidia species are widespread geographically; their distributions often overlap, and hybridization between taxa is common naturally. Actinidia species that vary in ploidy and complex mixtures of cytotypes are prevalent in natural populations. Here, we review the recent emerging knowledge of natural distribution, biogeography, and population genetics in Actinidia with a particular focus on the pattern of overlapping distribution and natural hybridization among Actinidia species. Based on the comparison of the original geographical localities where most kiwifruit commercial cultivars were selected and the whole geographical range of the species complex A. chinensis, we propose that introgression breeding for new selections and cultivars of kiwifruit should utilize targeted exploration in natural hybrid zones as well as the genomic tools and related genetic resources that are becoming available to an unprecedented extent.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been funded by the National High-tech R&D Program of China (2010AA10Z102), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30900119 and 30771479) and a grant from the Key Laboratory of Plant Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of SCBG-CAS (211006). The authors gratefully thank Dawei Li, Liyun Sui, Caihong Zhong, Xinwei Li, and other colleagues in the National Actinidia Germplasm Repository of WBG-CAS for providing useful data and help for preparing this manuscript. The authors also thank Prof. Ross Ferguson and the anonymous reviewers for critical comments on this manuscript.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510650, People’s Republic of China

    Hongwen Huang & Yifei Liu

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  1. Hongwen Huang
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  2. Yifei Liu
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Correspondence to Hongwen Huang or Yifei Liu.

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Communicated by A. G. Abbott

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Huang, H., Liu, Y. Natural hybridization, introgression breeding, and cultivar improvement in the genus Actinidia . Tree Genetics & Genomes 10, 1113–1122 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-014-0771-8

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