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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » National Clonal Germplasm Repository » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #365610
Research Project: Management of Temperate-Adapted Fruit, Nut, and Specialty Crop Genetic Resources and Associated Information

Location: National Clonal Germplasm Repository

Title: Will the real 'Boysen' please stand up?

Author
item Hummer, Kim
item Carter, Katherine
item Zurn, Jason
item Finn, Chad
item Bushakra, Jill
item Bassil, Nahla

Submitted to: Bramble: The Newsletter of the North American Branble Growers Association, Inc.
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/12/2019
Publication Date: 6/18/2019
Citation: Hummer, K.E., Carter, K.A., Zurn, J.D., Finn, C.E., Bushakra, J., Bassil, N.V. 2019. Will the real 'Boysen' please stand up?. Bramble: The Newsletter of the North American Branble Growers Association, Inc.. 34(2):13-15.

Interpretive Summary: At the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR), we preserve temperate specialty crops and their wild relatives. We are VERY interested in keeping correctly identified cultivars of our crops and their wild relatives, including blackberries. As growers know too well, sometimes cultivar identity turns out to be something different than what the label says. Our genetics laboratory has developed a way to identify blackberry cultivars by “fingerprinting” them using a DNA test. We run molecular analyses similar to the tests used by the police in real life and on your favorite crime show. In this article, we describe the results of using this test to identify a plant with the original true to type ‘Boysen’, and to determine that ‘Riwaka Choice’ and ‘Boysen 43’ are offspring of the original ‘Boysen’. The NCGR collection does not have true-to-type ‘Young’, or true-to-type ‘Logan’. We have searched throughout the US and Canada looking for true ‘Young’ and ‘Logan’. We will seek other sources to add these historical types to our collection.

Technical Abstract: At the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR), we preserve genetic resources of temperate specialty crops. We are VERY interested in keeping correctly identified genetic resources of our crops and their wild relatives, including blackberries. As growers know too well, sometimes cultivar identity turns out to be something different than what the label says. Our genetics laboratory has developed a way to identify blackberry cultivars by “fingerprinting” them using a DNA test. We run molecular analyses similar to the tests used by the police in real life and on your favorite crime show. We describe the results of using these techniques to identify a plant with the original true to type ‘Boysen’, and to determine that ‘Riwaka Choice’ and ‘Boysen 43’ are offspring (possibly first or second generation) of the original ‘Boysen’. The NCGR collection does not have true-to-type ‘Young’, or true-to-type ‘Logan’. We have searched throughout the US and Canada looking for true ‘Young’ and ‘Logan’. We will seek other sources to add these historical types to our collection.