In an article entitled, “Comparison of the genetic determinism of two key phenological traits, flowering and maturity dates, in three Prunus species: peach, apricot and sweet cherry” published online 25 July in Heredity,  E Dirlewanger and his eleven associates affiliated to multiple Universities in France, Italy and Spain studied the probable effects of climatic change on flowering and maturity dates of three Prunus species: peach, apricot and sweet cherry for a period of 3-8 years. Their combined data  collected over the years indicate flowering and maturity dates were highly stable and not affected by climatic variations. At the same time heritable estimates were high. They detected major QTLs for flowering date  on linkage groups  4 for apricot and sweet cherry,  while for peach  major QTLs were resident on chromosome 6. For maturity date, a major QTL was detected on linkage group 4 in all the three species that were investigated. Using the peach genome sequence data, the scientists identified key genes as well as the candidate genes in the major QTLs on linkage groups 4 and 6. The results obtained in this identification will go a long way to develop cultivars of the three Prunus species adapted to future climatic conditions