Smaller, more efficient, higher yielding avocado and citrus trees could be the reality for orchardists in coming years thanks to a collaborative effort between Plant & Food Research in New Zealand and Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy researchers.
Earlier work by Plant & Food Research identified the gene marker in apple root stock that causes dwarfism, a desired trait that enables growers to plant trees in higher densities and increase fruit yield in an orchard’s early years of establishment.
It has been the single most significant factor contributing to remarkable gains in apple orchard productivity that amounts to a 10-fold increase in fruit yield in the past 40 years.
Now Australian genetic researchers, led by Professor Peter Prentis, are working with Plant & Food Research to deliver the same benefits in avocado and citrus root stock, using gene editing technology.
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