Breeding for durable disease resistance in apple

Abstract: In apple production there is a rising demand for high quality and regularly bearing apple varieties with durable disease resistance, allowing reduced pesticide input and therefore preventing residues on harvested fruits. Apple breeding has achieved considerable progress in developing disease resistant and tolerant varieties. However, relying only on single gene resistances such as Rvi6 (Vf) against apple scab proved not to be a sustainable strategy as resistance breakdown is increasingly observed in orchards throughout Europe. Approaches are presented to develop commercially successful varieties with durable resistance against a range of important diseases.