International Journal of Molecular Evolution and Biodiversity, 2025, Vol.15, No.1, 1-9 http://ecoevopublisher.com/index.php/ijmeb 6 best-selling varieties, and no one cares about the old varieties, and they gradually disappear. For example, in Hainan, China, the durians in the plantations look like the same variety, but the fruit shape and taste are very different. This shows that their genes are not so uniform, and they may not be the same at all (Lin et al., 2022). In this way, protection and breeding will become more complicated. The environmental impact is also not small. Some old durian trees were originally planted in the suburbs of Bangkok. It is said that they were brought here by Burmese soldiers in the past. Some of these trees have lived for hundreds of years. But then there were two major floods - one in 1871 and the other in 1942, which almost washed away these old trees. It is almost impossible to find their genes now. The situation of wild durian is not optimistic either. Some are almost extinct. If they are not taken care of, they may be completely gone in a few years. Although no one grows them, the genes hidden in them may be useful in the future. After all, if you wait until something goes wrong before looking for those genes, it may be too late (Mursyidin et al., 2023). We should act now while we can still harvest and protect them. Figure 2 Genetic divergence among durian (Durio zibethinus Murr.) cultivars from South Kalimantan, Indonesia, and other cultivars (Adopted from Mursyidin, 2022) 6.2 Advances in biotechnology for germplasm improvement Now breeding is indeed not as difficult as before. Because of some new tools, it is more convenient to operate. For example, SSR molecular markers are a common method used by everyone now. It can help us see the genetic structure of durian clearly and also help preserve those different varieties. What is the use of this thing? You can think of it as a sieve that can filter out durian with good genes. In this way, when breeding, we don’t have to rely on guessing, but directly choose the “good” varieties. This process has a scientific name, called “marker-assisted selection” (MAS). In addition to SSR, there is also “QTL positioning”, which is used to find genes related to fruit size, sweetness, and disease resistance (Khaksar et al., 2024). With them, we can know more accurately which durian is worth keeping. And now, the genome of durian has been figured out. Scientists have even found many key genes related to maturity time and disease resistance (Teh et al., 2017). These results are not only for research, but also can be used in breeding in the future.
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