The contribution of in vitro methods and molecular tools to pear genetic studies and breeding has advanced considerably during the last decade. Haploidization via in situ parthenogenesis induced by irradiated pollen and in vitro rescue of the haploid plantlets has been developed for pear. Techniques of adventitious bud regeneration from in vitro leaves have been developed for several genotypes of European and Asian pear and for quince. So far, applications of these techniques for the induction of somaclonal variation have been very limited. Increased tolerance to fire blight has been obtained in somaclonal variants of the cultivar Durondeau, and selection of quince rootstocks tolerant to iron deficiency has been achieved with adventious regeneration followed by in vitro selection. A major evolution of pear biotechnology is the recent development of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Since the first report in 1996, several teams have succeeded to transform about ten different genotypes of varieties and rootstocks. Projects have started in several countries to express various trangenes in pear (lytic peptides, rolC and SAMase genes). Molecular markers developed on pear now include isozymes, RAPDs and RFLPs. They have been used mostly for varietal identification of european as well as asian pears. Markers have been developed recently for a few genes of interest, such as a black-spot resistance gene and an ACC synthase gene. But no genetic map of pear is yet available. Finally, about 20 genes have already been cloned in pear, most of them from P. pyrifolia. They are mostly involved in fruit ripening or quality and self-incompatibility.