Dwarfing of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) trees: Opportunities and challenges

Yuchan Zhou; Mary Taylor; Steven J R Underhill

doi:10.9734/AJEA/2014/12012

Back

Dwarfing of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) trees: Opportunities and challenges

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Dwarfing of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) trees: Opportunities and challenges

Yuchan Zhou, Mary Taylor and Steven J R Underhill

American Journal of Experimental Agriculture, Vol.4(12), pp.1743-1763

2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.9734/AJEA/2014/12012

Files and links (2)

pdf

PDF - Published Version (Open Access)305.46 kBDownload View

Published VersionPDF - Published Version (Open Access)CC BY V3.0, Open Access

url

https://doi.org/10.9734/AJEA/2014/12012View

Published Version

Abstract

Horticultural Production

Dwarfism

Artocarpus

breadfruit

genetic variability

plant growth regulator

mutagenesis

mutation breeding

genetic transformation

Breadfruit [Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg)] is a traditional staple crop grown for its starchy fruit throughout the tropics. It has long been recognized for its potential to alleviate hunger in the region. However, being a tree of 10 - 30m, breadfruit is vulnerable to wind damage. Owing to the continuing trend of global climate change, the success of the species as a sustainable crop for delivering local food security is compromised by the likelihood of more intense tropical windstorms in the island nations. Tree height also forms a major constraint to disease management and fruit harvesting. These imperatives have driven an increasing interest in developing breadfruit varieties with short stature. While a great diversity of breadfruit cultivars with varying nutritional and agronomic characteristics exists, the genetic resource showing dwarfing traits is largely uncharacterised. Historically, there has been no intentional breeding for breadfruit cultivars. The long growth cycle, predominantly vegetative propagation and lack of genome information create challenge for crop improvement through traditional breeding. In this review, we highlight the current knowledge of plant dwarfism and its application in agricultural practices and genetic improvement for dwarf phenotype, and present options and tools for breadfruit dwarfing with special reference to natural genetic variability for dwarfing rootstocks, plant growth regulators, potential of mutagenesis and its combination with the currently established in vitro propagation protocol in breadfruit. The role of genetic transformation, high-throughput mutant detection by using Targeting-Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes (TILLING) and tools of next generation sequencing is also discussed.

Details

Title: Dwarfing of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) trees: Opportunities and challenges
Authors: Yuchan Zhou (Author) - University of Queensland
Mary Taylor (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Steven J R Underhill (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Publication details: American Journal of Experimental Agriculture, Vol.4(12), pp.1743-1763
Publisher: Sciencedomain International
Date published: 2014
DOI: 10.9734/AJEA/2014/12012
ISSN: 2231-0606
Copyright note: Copyright © 2014 Zhou et al.; This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Organisation Unit: Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering; Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99448633202621
Output Type: Journal article

Metrics

219 File views/ downloads

1065 Record Views