ADVANCED BREEDING TECHNOLOGIES FOR FRUIT CROPS: GENOMIC SELECTION, SPEED BREEDING AND GENOME EDITING

Abstract

Fruit crops are essential components of global agriculture, contributing substantially to nutritional security, farm income, employment and agricultural diversification. However, genetic improvement of perennial fruit crops is constrained by long juvenile phases, extended generation intervals, large plant size, high heterozygosity, polyploidy, reproductive barriers, complex quantitative trait architecture and strong genotype × environment interactions. These limitations make conventional crossing and phenotypic selection time-consuming, resource-intensive and often inefficient for traits that can only be evaluated after several years. Recent advances in genomics and biotechnology provide opportunities to overcome these constraints and accelerate genetic gain. Genomic selection (GS) enables genome-wide prediction of breeding values and early selection of superior individuals for complex traits, reducing dependence on prolonged phenotypic evaluation. Speed breeding complements genomic selection by shortening generation intervals through controlled environmental conditions, manipulation of flowering, grafting and other generation-acceleration strategies, thereby increasing the number of breeding cycles achievable within a given period. Precision genomics, particularly CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing, enables targeted modification of genes and regulatory regions associated with disease resistance, fruit quality, nutritional composition, plant architecture and reproductive traits. Recent developments in multiplex editing, promoter editing, base editing and prime editing are further expanding the precision and versatility of genome engineering. The integration of genomic selection, speed breeding and precision genomics with high-throughput phenotyping offers considerable potential to transform fruit breeding from a predominantly phenotype-driven process into a predictive, accelerated and precision-oriented system. This review summarizes the principles, applications, successes and limitations of these advanced breeding technologies and discusses their potential integration for developing high-yielding, high quality, climate-resilient and market-preferred fruit cultivars.