Location: Genetic Improvement for Fruits & Vegetables Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-21000-023-008-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2022
End Date: Aug 31, 2023
Objective:
Maintaining crop production in a changing environment will be challenging. One approach to adaption to climate extremes through interspecific hybridization wherein the species to be hybridized thrive in different climates or habitats. Our objective is to examine species-specific gene expression in F1 hybrids of Vaccinium macrocarpon x V. oxycoccos in response to temperature stress, as a proxy for climate change.
Approach:
F1 hybrids (5 accessions) of Vaccinium macrocarpon x V. oxycoccos, as well as a V. macrocarpon control (cv. Stevens) will be exposed to temperature stress in incubators. At three time points, leaf tissue will be collected and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. RNA will be extracted and used for RNAseq on a long-read sequencing platform.