NC4 Pear Tree Breeding for Color and Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current pear tree varieties lack a cultivar that combines desirable traits such as earlier maturity, increased aroma, and improved storage ability, while maintaining a unique fruit skin color and flavor profile.
Innovation Solution
The development of the 'NC4' pear tree variety, resulting from a cross between 'Concorde' and 'Red Williams', which exhibits red-purple skin at harvest turning to red-orange upon ripening, with characteristics including earlier maturity, more aromatic fruit, thinner branches, and longer storage ability compared to its parents and similar varieties like 'Sweet Sensation'.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If pear tree variety 'NC4' is developed with red-purple skin color at harvest, then unique fruit appearance and market differentiation are achieved, but fruit storage ability and color stability become challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by selecting and breeding a pear variety with specific genetic characteristics that allow the skin color to transition from red-purple at harvest to red-orange during storage. This natural color transformation parameter change resolves the contradiction by making the fruit visually appealing at harvest while developing a different, stable color during storage, thus maintaining marketability throughout the storage period.
2Adaptability or versatility
If pear tree variety combines multiple desirable traits from different parents, then fruit quality and aroma are improved, but genetic stability and true-to-type propagation become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing multiple generations of asexual propagation (budding) before commercial release to establish and stabilize the hybrid genotype. This preliminary stabilization ensures that the desired combination of traits from 'Concorde' and 'Red Williams' parents is fixed and will be consistently inherited in all subsequent propagations, resolving the contradiction between genetic versatility and stability.
3Duration of action of stationary object
If pear variety is bred for later maturity to improve storage ability, then storage duration is extended, but time to market and harvest scheduling flexibility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by creating a variety with flexible maturity characteristics that can adapt to different growing conditions and market requirements. The 'NC4' variety exhibits later maturity under certain conditions which extends storage ability, but the breeding program has maintained the capacity for timing adjustments, thus resolving the contradiction between extended storage duration and loss of time through controlled variability.
Data Source
AI summary
`NC4` is a new and distinct variety of pear tree (Pyrus communis), selected from seedlings produced as the result of a cross between female parent `Concorde` (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,192) and male parent `Red Williams` (not patented). `NC4` is distinguished by its fruit, the skin overcolor of which is purple at harvest, turning to red and orange-red upon ripening.