Progress of collection, conservation and innovative utilization of Malus resources in the National Pear and Apple Germplasm Repository (Xingcheng)

Apple is a deciduous plant in the genus Malus of the Rosaceae family. Its origin and evolution differs due to different ecological geography. Generally, there are five gene centers with obvious boundaries in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Europe and North America. It has a long history of cultivation. As early as 2000 years ago, there were literary records about apple cultivation. China’s Malus germplasm resources are abundant. There are 17 species native to China, which provides an important material guarantee for the development of apple industry. China attaches great importance to the collection and preservation of apple germplasm resources, and systematically investigated the Malus germplasm resources in Xinjiang, Sichuan and Guizhou in 1959, 1982—1984 and 1983—1989, respectively. China began to build a special apple conservation repository in 1979,“The National Pear and Apple Germplasm Repository (Xingcheng)”. The repository was constructed by the Institute of Pomology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as a comprehensive apple protection repository, and was completed in 1989. In addition, four local special resource repositories have been set up in Kunming, Yili, Gongzhuling and Luntai. “The National Pear and Apple Germplasm Repository (Xingcheng)”has the most preserved Malus germplasm resources in China, and plays an important role in the preservation, innovation and utilization of apple resources. Since 2005,“The National Pear and Apple Germplasm Repository (Xingcheng)”has cooperated with the researchers from the above four repositories and organized at least one investigation of apple resources every year, and has collected more than 1000 apple accessions. By December 2024, 2300 Malus germplasm accessions had been collected and preserved. More than 20 excellent materials were selected through the evaluation of apple fire blight resistance, fruit polyphenol content, aroma substance and sugar and acid contents. Using the selected materials, more than 200 hybridization combinations have been performed in the past 10 years, and more than 30 000 hybrid offspring have been created. In terms of shared utilization,“The National Pear and Apple Germplasm Repository (Xingcheng)”has provided more than 6000 shared utilization times to Institutes of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Shandong Agricultural University, Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other universities and research institutes, as well as cooperatives and enterprises in Liaoning, Shaanxi, Henan and other places. It has provided materials for basic research on the origin and evolution, quality improvement, and gene mining, promoted the high-quality development of apple industry, and played an important role in rural revitalization. In this paper, the conservation status of Malus germplasm resources in“The National Pear and Apple Germplasm Repository (Xingcheng)”, the supporting role in basic research, and the progress made in innovative utilization were introduced, and the future research focus was prospected, in order to provide reference for the high-quality protection, efficient utilization and industrial support of apple germplasm resources.