507 Increasing Fruit Quality of Peaches and Nectarines: the Main Goals of ISF-FO (Italy) Alessandro Liverani, Daniela Giovannini and Federica Brandi Istituto Sperimentale per la Frutticoltura - Sezione di Forlì C.P. 7178, 47100 Forlì, Italy E-mail: liverani.isf@agraria.it Keywords: breeding, taste, stony hard, firmness, ascorbic acid Abstract In 1980, the Forlì branch of the Istituto Sperimentale per la Frutticoltura started a breeding program with the precise aim of improving fruit quality in peach. The main objectives pursued and the results obtained were: a) to join the excellent flavor of the traditional white-fleshed Italian varieties with the good commercial characteristics of cultivars from USA. ‘Alba’, ‘Bea’, ‘Neve’ and ‘Crizia’ have been already released, and several promising selections are under advanced evaluation. Though of high quality standard, the selected material does not match the high flesh firmness with the good flavor of the old Italian varieties, presumably because flesh firmness plays a role in determining the fruit flavor; b) to introduce the “stony hard” character in genotypes that meet high horticultural standard and have melting flesh fruits. Up to now, the best result obtained is the selection IFF 331 that, together with the “stony hard” trait, has very good fruit color and size; c) to increase ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) content, which is generally poor in peach fruit. We started with a few genotypes characterized by relatively high ascorbic acid content and good flavor. In the progeny derived from the first crosses, a wide range of variability was found for color, fruit size and Vitamin C content; d) to obtain early ripening peach and nectarine cultivars with stones that are small and unsusceptible to split-pit. At the moment, few of the seedlings exhibited the desired characteristics. Moreover, all the F 2 nectarines were sensitive to skin cracking and surface speckling. INTRODUCTION Consumers are more and more aware of the quality of the fruit they eat, paying increased attention to characteristics like taste, flavor, nutritional properties, and appearance. For this reason, improvement of fruit quality is the common target of most of the current breeding programs. Together with the traditional goals of improving ripening time, yield, fruit appearance, handling and shipping resistance, good organoleptic fruit quality is required for new cultivars (Bellini et al., 1994; Monet, 1989; Liverani and Fideghelli, 1993). At the beginning of the ‘80s we started a breeding program with the precise aim of increasing fruit quality in peach. The main objectives of the research activity have been: a) to obtain fruits joining excellent organoleptic properties with high handling and shipping suitability. The breeding research activity carried out in the last decades, indeed, has often privileged the selection of genotypes whose fruits were attractive and quite resistant to handling, often neglecting, though, other important qualities such as taste and aroma; b) to prolong fruit post-harvest life. After being harvested, peach and nectarine fruits go through quick decay processes that strongly impair their organoleptic quality; c) to improve fruit nutritional properties by increasing its ascorbic acid content (Vitamin C). In peaches and nectarines, the concentration of this compound characterized by well known anti-oxidant properties is much lower than in other fruit (7 mg/100g compared to 60 of strawberries or to 50 of oranges (Mapson, 1970)). Proc. 5 th IS on Peach Eds. R.S. Johnson & C.H. Chrisosto Acta Hort. 592, ISHS 2002