GENEBANK WORK FOR PRESERVATION OF THE GENETIC DIVERSITY OF WILD APPLES

The center of diversity of the genus Malus is situated in East Asia. The diversity of wild and cultivated apples, as a whole represent a great pool of traits for multiple use. This irretrievable diversity is to be preserved now and in the future by genebanks. This is to be done by: 1) keeping the trees in situ at the natural site (wild species) or on farm; 2) ex situ as grafted trees (cultivars), or as seedlings, and seed lots in the genebanks. For decades, classical collections of wild and cultivated apples have existed. Mostly, the material was collected a long time ago, exchanged between different arboreta, often as open-pollinated seeds. Usually, the original passport data is entirely incomplete. Additionally in collections, many representative Malus species are restricted to only a few accessions. Therefore they are neither representative for the extent of variability within a species nor for usable traits. As a result, in recent years collecting of wild specimens has been revived. For multiple use of genebank material, evaluation and characterization are necessary. The most important traits to be defined are for resistances to biotic and abiotic factors so that they may be used in breeding new cultivars.