Abstract: The peach Prunus persica (Rosaceae) is an important deciduous fruit tree, the cultivation of which originated in China, where many wild varieties provide excellent genetic resources for peach-breeding programs. Colors of these varieties vary widely from colors of these varieties, with reds, yellows, greens, and whites. Of them, red is caused mainly by accumulation of anthocyanin, a natural water-soluble pigment that occurs widely in plants, that causes color change depending on pH, temperature and other conditions, but it also has medicinal properties that include prevention of cardiovascular disease, relieving vision, and enhancing immunity. The greater the anthocyanin content, the deeper the red. When fruit presents as green, white or yellow, anthocyanin contents are low, mainly chlorophyll and carotenoids. Common anthocyanin pigments in peach are primarily cornflower (cyanindin) and geranium (pelargonidin), and secondarily delphinidin (delphinidin), peonidin (peonidin), petunidin (petunidin), and mallow (malvidin). Anthocyanin synthesis is mainly affected by genetics, with PpMYB10.1 considered to be the key transcription factor in peach. However, synthesis is also affected by light, temperature, hormones, sugar, mineral elements, and light and exogenous hormone treatments can influence fruit color. Anthocyanin plays an important role in people’s health, and studies on red color production in peach fruit benefits breeding programs. While China’s first early maturity and low-acid red-fleshed peach variety “Jinling xuepan” takes China’s peach-breeding research to a new level, to further enrich the diversity of peach fruit color, skin non-red colored (white / yellow) peach varieties should also be considered in breeding programs. We review studies on genetic variation and regulatory mechanisms related to formation of red color in peach pericarp and pulp to improve identification of genotypes affecting peach fruit color, and innovation in peach-red-germplasm in breeding programs.
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