Location: Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-21000-060-015-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2024
End Date: Jun 30, 2028
Objective:
Objective1: Sequence and assemble the genomes of diverse blackberry and raspberry genotypes from the USDA-ARS-HCPGIRU breeding program.
Objective 2: Perform phenotypic measurement of traits related to fruit quality, cane development, flowering habit, and marketable yield potential in caneberry breeding populations.
Objective 3: Use genotyping-by-sequencing to genetically map traits of interest in the USDA breeding program.
Approach:
Breeding populations at three research farms will be used as the basis to collect phenotypic measurements of traits that are relevant to the Pacific Northwest and U.S. caneberry industry, including machine harvested yields, fruit-related traits including size, firmness, color, and shelf-life, and physiological traits including number of fruits per lateral, cane length and diameter, growth habit, presence/absence of thorns or spines, and primocane/floricane flowering habit.
We will generate genomic sequence datasets required to assemble and annotate polyploid blackberry and multiple diploid raspberry reference genome sequences. Genomes will be assembled and annotated using established bioinformatics protocols to create a platform for future sequence alignment and molecular marker development for trait prediction.
