Plant Gene and Trait 2025, Vol.16, No.1, 1-14 http://genbreedpublisher.com/index.php/pgt 3 In the 1800s, new technology changed everything. Steamships and refrigeration made it possible to store pineapples longer and ship them farther. This helped turn pineapple into a valuable global crop. Around this time, Hawaii became a major center for pineapple farming. The variety ‘Smooth Cayenne’ was grown on a large scale, and Hawaii also built big canning factories. These factories helped pineapple enter markets all over the world. In the 20th century, the pineapple industry grew rapidly. Countries such as Costa Rica, the Philippines, and Thailand began to grow pineapples on large-scale farms and soon became major exporters worldwide. However, this rapid expansion also brought some negative effects. The entire industry gradually became dependent on a few popular pineapple varieties. These varieties were selected because of their beautiful appearance, sweet taste, and good transportation tolerance. While these characteristics improved planting efficiency and commercialization convenience, they led to a sharp decline in pineapple genetic diversity. The highly homogenous variety structure makes pineapples more vulnerable to pests, diseases and climate change, increasing the instability and risk of agricultural production. 2.3 Major regions of pineapple genetic diversity South America remains the core area of pineapple genetic diversity - this is not surprising, as pineapples originated here. In places like Brazil, Paraguay and their surrounding areas, a large number of wild and traditional local varieties are still preserved. These native pineapples vary greatly in shape and size, have diverse growth habits, and have good adaptability to adversity, which is extremely valuable for breeding work. Among them, some wild varieties, such as Ananas bracteatus and Ananas macrodontes, are very popular (Zhou et al., 2015; Carvalho, 2020). They have natural resistance to insects and diseases and can survive well in harsh climatic conditions. Southeast Asia has also gradually developed into an important pineapple diversity region. Countries such as Thailand and the Philippines are not only major pineapple growers, but also have a rich variety of pineapple varieties. Over the years, local farmers have continuously selected and improved varieties based on consumer taste preferences and market demand, and gradually formed a number of types with local characteristics. Among them, well-known varieties such as Queen and Red Spanish are widely popular because of their unique flavor, long shelf life, and suitability for both fresh consumption and export (Nashima et al., 2022). In Brazil, Pérola pineapple is a representative variety of the Pernambuco group. Although it is not very common in the international market, it is still very popular in the local area, mainly because of its sweet aroma and soft sour taste, which meets the taste needs of local consumers. Hawaii also played an important part in the history of modern pineapple farming, especially during the 1900s. The Pineapple Research Institute (PRI), based in Hawaii, became a center for new ideas and breeding work (Paull et al., 2022). PRI created better pineapple varieties that worked well for large farms and factories. Its biggest success was the ‘Smooth Cayenne’ type, which led the canned pineapple market for many years. Although Hawaii doesn’t grow as many pineapples now, its research still matters. Now, research centers and seed banks around the world have taken over. They continue the job of saving and sharing pineapple genetic resources. 3 Genetic Structure and Classification of Pineapple Germplasm 3.1 Genetic diversity and classification criteria When people classify pineapple varieties, they mostly look at what they can see- like how big the fruit is, whether the leaves have spines, the sugar and acid balance, the flesh color, and how much fiber is in it. Because pineapple has been grown in so many places, and for such a long time, local varieties have taken on their own shapes and traits. Different growing conditions and histories have led to some clear differences between regions, both in how the plants look and in their genetics. Right now, the most common pineapple types in commercial farming fall into four main groups: Smooth Cayenne, Queen, Red Spanish, and Perola (Figure 1). Among them, Smooth Cayenne stands out- it’s grown widely and known for its big fruit, sweet taste, and soft texture with little fiber (Kinley et al., 2022).
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