Cold resistance genes of fruit crops

Abstract

Fruit crops are an irreplaceable source of essential nutrients, macro- and microelements, vitamins, organic acids, and antioxidants. Today, the overwhelming part of fruit supply in the market is provided by foreign producers. Import substitution and meeting the demand of the Russian Federation population for fruit consumption by the domestic agro-industrial complex is impossible without expanding the geography of cultivation areas, including those in zones of risky agriculture, which requires breeding of frost-resistant (cold-resistant) cultivars (fruit crops). Application of modern biotechnological and molecular genetic methods in breeding work will increase the profitability of fruit growing by reducing the time required for obtaining plants with the desired traits and by complex evaluation of the prospects of genotypes of parental forms. The present review considers modern data on cold tolerance genes of various fruit and berry crops, summarizes the known mechanisms of their action, activation, and regulation.The review considers modern data on genes of fruit and berry crops resistance to low temperatures, including characterization of genes encoding key receptors, signaling, effector proteins, and transcription factors in apple, pear, peach, pineapple, and strawberry. The known mechanisms of their operation, activation, regulation are given, and signaling cascades are described.

Keywords

• cold resistance genes
• fruit crops
• transcription factors
• cryoprotectants
• frost resistance
• cold tolerance
• winter hardiness