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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #394361
Research Project: Genetic Improvement of Blackberry, Red and Black Raspberry, Blueberry, and Strawberry

Location: Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit

Title: An introduction to the breeding insights initiative in blueberry

Author
item HISLOP, LILY - NON ARS EMPLOYEE
item LUBY, CLAIRE

Submitted to: Proceedings of the North American Blueberry Council Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/30/2022
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: This talk will present information on the USDA-ARS Breeding Insights Initiative. This initiative aims to aid underserved crop and animal development. The initiative supports genetic information collection and interpretation, and provides breeding software and technologies to enrich and speed up breeding pipelines. We will present on how we are applying the tools from this initiative to our blueberry breeding program to improve breeding efficiency.

Technical Abstract: Breeding Insights is a USDA initiative dedicated to aiding underserved crop and animal development. The initiative supports genetic information collection and interpretation, and provides breeding software and technologies to enrich and speed up breeding pipelines. The USDA-ARS Blueberry Breeding program in Corvallis, OR is working with the Breeding Insights initiative to develop a genetic marker screening platform for blueberry. The platform is being developed with the company Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) with the aim of utilizing genetic markers to predict phenotypic traits in blueberry and assess the quality of seedling and parent materials to improve breeding efficiency. We are screening 5,000-6,000 unique individuals from 85 biparental families for plant traits such as bloom time and ripening time, and fruit quality traits including size, firmness, sugars, acidity, and pH. We have completed the two years of replicated phenotypic data collection and are currently in the third season. This talk will outline the data collected so far, and the expected outcomes of the project. This work will benefit all blueberry growers, especially those in the Pacific Northwest region where the blueberry industry is relatively new and growing rapidly.