Plums

AbstractPlums arose in three distinct regions, European plums (Prunus domesticaand others) from southern Europe and Asia Minor, Japanese plums (Prunus salicinaand others) from China, and the American plums (Prunus Americanaand others) from North America. The two major commercial species of plum areP. domestica(primarily for the dried fruit industry) andP. salicina(primarily for the fresh fruit industry). Breeding efforts have resulted in many high quality fruit cultivars that have been adapted for various local environmental and disease pressures. At present though, there have been few successes in breeding for resistance to plum pox potyvirus, a virus that not only affects the marketability of the fruit crop but the health of the tree. A number of research groups have begun to develop the techniques necessary to introduce resistance to plum pox virus through genetic engineering. These efforts have resulted in “HoneySweet”, a prune plum (P. domestica) that has been found to be highly resistant to plum pox virus in field trials. Work is continuing on improving the techniques used to engineer a plum pox virus‐resistant plum as well as producing more cultivars of plum with the resistance.