Fruit trees are an important component of agricultural production and the horticultural industry in China, and the breeding of new cultivars is essential for improving fruit quality, yield, and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, fruit tree breeding is often constrained by long juvenile periods, high heterozygosity, complex genetic backgrounds, and strong environmental effects, which together limit the efficiency of conventional breeding. With the rapid advancement of biotechnology and information technology, fruit tree breeding is undergoing a transition from traditional empirical selection to precision design breeding. Biotechnological approaches, including genomics, molecular markers, gene editing, tissue culture, and cell engineering, have become important tools for the genetic improvement of fruit trees. The assembly of high-quality reference genomes and pan-genomes in major fruit crops has greatly improved the understanding of genome structure, genetic diversity, and trait-associated variation. Based on these genomic resources, genome-wide association studies, map-based cloning, and comparative genomics have facilitated the identification of key loci and genes associated with fruit quality and resistance to diseases and environmental stresses. Meanwhile, molecular markers such as SNPs, InDels, and structural variations have been widely applied in marker-assisted breeding for germplasm evaluation, parental selection, and early seedling screening. Gene editing technologies, especially CRISPR/Cas9 and its derived systems, such as base editing and prime editing, provide new opportunities for precise trait improvement. In addition, tissue culture and cell engineering techniques, including shoot tip culture, embryo rescue, somatic embryogenesis, protoplast fusion, and transient expression systems, further play crucial roles in rapid propagation, virus elimination, genetic transformation, functional validation, and germplasm innovation. Information technologies are also reshaping modern fruit tree breeding. Bioinformatics provides essential support for genome assembly and annotation, comparative genomic analysis, transcriptome analysis, protein interaction prediction, multi-omics integration, and functional gene mining. Phenomics enables high-throughput and accurate acquisition of phenotypic information, thereby improving the efficiency and consistency of trait evaluation. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data platforms make it possible to manage and analyze large-scale genotypic, phenotypic, environmental, and breeding data. These technologies can be used to construct predictive models, support breeding decision-making, and optimize breeding schemes, thereby improving the predictability and precision of new cultivar development. The integration and synergy of biotechnology and information technology will accelerate the establishment of intelligent breeding systems for fruit trees. By combining genomic resources, molecular marker information, gene function analysis, high-throughput phenotyping, environmental data, and breeding records, integrated digital platforms can connect germplasm evaluation, gene discovery, molecular design, trait prediction, and selection decision-making into a more systematic breeding workflow. Such integration facilitates the transformation of fruit tree breeding from experience-driven selection to data- and model-driven precision breeding, and supports the development of superior cultivars with high quality, strong resistance, and broad adaptability. This review summarizes the recent advances and practical applications of biotechnology and information technology in fruit tree germplasm innovation and new cultivar breeding. Current challenges and future prospects are also briefly outlined, with the aim of providing references for the modernization of fruit tree breeding in China.
Gu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.