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"If breeding a new fruit with a specific trait is like finding a needle in a haystack, then MAS is like having a metal detector," says Dr Laing.

"Our breeding programme with ZESPRI generates many thousands of seedlings every year. Without MAS, we would have to plant out each of those seedlings, wait years until they bear fruit and then assess which plants we wanted to commercialise or use for further breeding. With MAS, we can quickly "scan" the seedlings and find out right-away which ones are likely to have the type of fruit we want."

Dr Laing says that's good news for both kiwifruit growers and consumers because it will help in breeding new commercial varieties that include some of the numerous health, flavour and colour characteristics found in wild kiwifruit.

"The genus Actinidia, to which all kiwifruit belong, is incredibly diverse and contains many colours, shapes, flavours and other attributes beyond the two most prominent industry cultivars, the green-fleshed Hayward and yellow-fleshed Hort16A (better known as ZESPRI GOLD Kiwifruit).

"HortResearch has a collection of 23 species of kiwifruit and many more can be found in China, from where kiwifruit originated. We're now better placed than ever to unlock some of that natural resource and deliver it to consumers."

HortResearch acting Chief Executive Dr Bruce Campbell said the fact that New Zealand researchers were the first to publish such a large body of data on kiwifruit biology would pay significant dividends for New Zealand's billion dollar kiwifruit industry.

"The work involved in identifying these ESTs, plus research that has been done to investigate their use in ongoing breeding programmes proves New Zealand's world leadership status in kiwifruit science. Now, by sharing the EST database with researchers worldwide, we will be able to gain even further knowledge through collaborations with other researchers.

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