Advances in the research of tissue culture and genetic transformation in cherry

Abstract: Cherry is one of the most popular fruits in the world for its good taste, abundant nutrients and high economic benefit for the growers. However, the development of cherry industry is limited for serious cracking and poor storage life of the fruits. Breeding new varieties with good quality and long storage life is very urgent for the industry. As a perennial plant, cherry has a long life cycle that limits conventional breeding. The technology of tissue culture and genetic transformation provides an efficient method for overcoming the obstacles of traditional breeding and accelerating the breeding programs.Plant tissue culture can produce a large number of healthy and uniform plants in a short period in controlled environment. Tissue culture and genetic transformation of cherry were reviewed in the present paper. The genotype type was an important internal factor affecting regeneration. Different varieties had diverse regeneration rates. Meanwhile, the survival rates varied with the times of collecting apical buds and dark treatment of leaves. The young leaves in the upper part of the cherry tree had stronger morphogenesis abilities. The light quality also affected in vitro regeneration of the leaves of Chinese cherry.The duration of low temperature was key factor affecting embryo culture of cherry. The embryonic age was an important factor affecting the success of embryo rescue and the growth of the embryo seedling.The media greatly affected the regeneration rate of plantlets. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation was one of the most widely used methods in cherry. By means of genetic transformation the marker genes and target genes such as growth characteristic related genes, frozen tolerance genes, disease resis-tant genes, softening and aging related genes had been transformed. The prospects and problems of the genetic transformation in cherry were also discussed in this article: Cherry tissue culture stays in suitable medium screening yet, and wide used nursery production system has not formed. Most of the transformation of cherry target genes absent the field testing only carried out on molecular level. Most cherry genetic transformation use rootstocks not cultivar as explants. In addition, single transformation and low the regeneration rate of explants lead to fewer successful cases of genetic transformation. Therefore, we should actively strengthen the cherry tissue culture and regeneration system, nursery production system, genetic transformation system especially for the cultivars in order to lay the foundation for cherry breeding.