Yoon-Kyeong Kim

Identification of Pyrus single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and evaluation for genetic mapping in European pear and interspecific Pyrus hybrids

We have used new generation sequencing (NGS) technologies to identify single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers from three European pear (Pyrus communis L.) cultivars and subsequently developed a subset of 1096 pear SNPs into high throughput markers by combining them with the set of 7692 apple SNPs on the IRSC apple Infinium® II 8K array. We then evaluated this apple and pear Infinium® II 9K SNP array for large-scale genotyping in pear across several species, using both pear and apple SNPs. The segregating populations employed for array validation included a segregating population of European pear (‘Old Home’בLouise Bon Jersey’) and four interspecific breeding families derived from Asian (P. pyrifolia Nakai and P. bretschneideri Rehd.) and European pear pedigrees. In total, we mapped 857 polymorphic pear markers to construct the first SNP-based genetic maps for pear, comprising 78% of the total pear SNPs included in the array. In addition, 1031 SNP markers derived from apple (13% of the total apple SNPs included in the array) were polymorphic and were mapped in one or more of the pear populations. These results are the first to demonstrate SNP transferability across the genera Malus and Pyrus. Our construction of high density SNP-based and gene-based genetic maps in pear represents an important step towards the identification of chromosomal regions associated with a range of horticultural characters, such as pest and disease resistance, orchard yield and fruit quality.

Identification of multiple key genes involved in pathogen defense and multi-stress tolerance using microarray and network analysis

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Brassinosteroid (BR), a plant steroid hormone, plays key roles in numerous growth and developmental processes as well as tolerance to both abiotic and biotic stress. To understand the biological networks involved in BR-mediated signaling pathways and stress tolerance, we performed comparative genome-wide transcriptome analysis of a constitutively activated BR bes1-D mutant with an Agilent Arabidopsis 4 x 44K oligo chip. As a result, we newly identified 1,091 (562 up-regulated and 529 downregulated) significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The combination of GO enrichment and protein network analysis revealed that stress-related processes, such as metabolism, development, abiotic/biotic stress, immunity, and defense, were critically linked to BR signaling pathways. Among the identified gene sets, we confirmed more than a 6-fold up-regulation of NB-ARC and FLS2 in bes1-D plants. However, some genes, including TIR1, TSA1 and OCP3, were down-regulated. Consistently, BR-activated plants showed higher tolerance to drought stress and pathogen infection compared to wild-type controls. In this study, we newly developed a useful, comprehensive method for large-scale identification of critical network and gene sets with global transcriptome analysis using a microarray. This study also showed that gain of function in the bes1-D gene can regulate the adaptive response of plants to various stressful conditions.

Breeding of ‘Joyskin’ Pear as fruit for Eating withthe Skin

In 1994, a new cultivar ‘Joyskin’ was created from a cross between the cultivars ‘Whangkeumbae’ and ‘Waseaka’ at the Pear Research Institute of the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Rural Development Administration. In 2006, the ‘Joyskin’ was selected from among the 317 seedlings resulting from the cross for its skin and taste qualities. Regional adaptation tests were conducted in nine regions and in ten experimental plots from 2006 to 2011. The cultivar was named in 2011. ‘Joyskin’ showed a vigorous growth habit and semi-spread characteristics similar to ‘Whangkeumbae’. The average full bloom date for ‘Joyskin’ was April 21st, which was also similar to ‘Whangkeumbae’. The optimum fruit ripening time was September 6-8th, which was six or eight days earlier than ‘Whangkeumbae’. The fruit was round in shape and the skin was a golden yellow color at maturity. The average fruit weight was 320 g and the flesh firmness was 2.5 kg/8mmφ. The firmness of the fruit skin determined by a blade-type plunger of texture analyzer was 22.9 N, which was significantly different from that of ‘Whangkeumbae’ 29.9N. Stone cell analysis of ‘Joyskin’ by phloroglucinol-HCl, showed that ‘Joyskin’ stone cells were small in size and few in numbers cpmpared to those of cultivars of was ‘Manpungbae’, ‘Niitaka’, and ‘Whangkeumbae’. The patent application for ‘Joyskin’ was submitted in April, 2012 (Grant No. 2012-337). In 2016, ‘Joyskin’ (Grant No. 5895) was registered as a separate record, with uniformity and stability per Korean Seed Industry Law. Additional key words: crossing breeding, fruit, Pyrus pyrifolia, self-incompatibility, stone cell

Changes in the Organic Compound Contents of the Pear Rootstocks Pyrus calleryana and Pyrus betulaefolia Affected by Excessive Soil Moisture

Changes in the Organic Compound

Growth and fruit production of asian pear trees grown on Y-, T-, and vase-training systems

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of training systems on growth and fruit production of ‘Niitaka’ pear (Pyrus pyrifolia L.) trees in the first 8 years in South Korea. The training systems included Y-trellis (YT), T-trellis (TT), and vase-pergola with either two (VP I) or three main branches (VP II). Tree spacing for YT, TT, VP I, and VP II were 6.5 m between tree rows, and 3.0, 6.0, 3.0, and 6.5 m between trees, respectively. The TT trees had lower tree height, canopy area, and number of new shoots, average length of new shoots, and trunk cross sectional area as compared to those in other training systems in year 3 or year 8. The TT and VP II systems were slow to fill the allotted space from year 3 to 8. The VP I trees had comparatively rapid development of the tree canopy, high cumulative yield efficiency per tree, high cumulative fruit yield per area, and large fruit size, as well as low operation hours for orchard management. Fruit quality parameters, such as fruit shape, soluble solids content, firmness, and titratable acidity, were not consistently affected by training system in years 5 and 8.