Implications of Genome Heterogeneity in Peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] as Distinguished from by Sequence Analysis of Genomic Variants

Peach is an economically important fruit crop and a genetic-genomic model for all Prunus species in Rosaceae. A doubled haploid reference genome sequence, a narrow genetic base contrasted by a wide phenotypic variability, the generation of cultivars through hybridization with subsequent clonal propagation, and the current accessibility of many founder genotypes, as well as the pedigree of modern commercial cultivars make peach a model for the study of inter-cultivar genomic heterogeneity and its shaping by artificial selection. In a recently completed study, the quantitative genomic differences among three diverse genotypes were analyzed as genomic variants including small variants (SNPs and InDels) and structural variants (SV) (duplications, inversions and translocations). These results allow us open new perspectives in the Processing Peach Breeding Program at UC Davis and help us for the future characterization of breeding materials. In addition, this approach may be useful for information mining from projects such as the RosBREED project. For crops such as fruit trees, the availability of old cultivars, breeding selections and their pedigrees, make them suitable models for the study of genome shaping by artificial selection, the control of pomological traits and the characterization of metabolic pathways, facilitating the development of phenotyping protocols for the improvement of Prunus crops.