01/13/06 Back to the future of apples, Pt. 1

The history of the North American apple can be traced from Johnny Appleseed spreading Old World seedlings, and eventually to the believed origin point of apples as we know them, Central Asia. According to Dr. Phil Forsline of U.S.D.A.'s Agricultural Research Service Plant Genetics Resources Unit in New York, the specific point of origin is believed to be Kazakhstan. Forsline has been among a team of researchers who have spent over a decade collecting seeds from wild apples from Kazakhstan and China. The purpose was to study the genetic diversity of apples and trees. But Forsline says the research has led to some discoveries that potentially could revolutionize the North American apple industry. FORSLINE: That gene pool that came over to North America really is a diluted gene pool which we can trace back to Kazakhstan. So going back to Kazakhstan allows us then to collect a more concentrated gene pool that's had a chance to co-evolve with certain diseases like apple scab. The wild apples from Kazakhstan do not possess either the size or flavor that would make them in and of them commercially successful. But Forsline says breed the Kazak apples, the believed ancestors of the North American patriarch varieties, with apples such as Gala and Braeburn, and the result may be a genetically stronger apple. This would not just apply to disease resistance, or to specific diseases like apple scab. More on that in our next program.