Abstract In Israel four European pear cultivars are grown: ‘Spadona’ is the main cultivar and ‘Coscia’, ‘Gentile’ and ‘Spadochina’ are its pollinators. However, molecular S -genotyping revealed that ‘Spadona’ is semi-compatible with its three pollinators. This explains, at least in part, the relatively low pear yield in Israel. The Syrian pear ( Pyrus syriaca ) grows wild in Israel and blooms intensively, overlapping the blooming of the cultivated European pears. Cross-fertilization between Syrian pear and ‘Spadona’ was shown to be efficient suggesting that Syrian pear might be a potent pollinator for ‘Spadona’. Twenty-six Syrian pear seedlings, from different sites in north-east Israel were S -genotyped identifying 11 that are fully compatible with the four European pear varieties cultivated in Israel. By this screening, 24 different S -RNases were cloned; ten of them are new, whereas the other fourteen had been identified previously. In addition, seedlings of two wild pear species were also S -genotyped. Two seedlings from Pyrus betulifolia and one from Pyrus korshinskii were found to be genetically compatible with the four European pear cultivars. From these seedlings four S -RNases were cloned, two are new, one had been cloned previously and one was identical to an S -RNase allele cloned from Syrian pear in this work.