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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » National Clonal Germplasm Repository » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #411380
Research Project: Conservation and Utilization of Temperate-Adapted Fruit, Nut, and Other Specialty Crop Genetic Resources

Location: National Clonal Germplasm Repository

Title: Confirming identity of blueberry cultivars with a microsatellite marker-based fingerprinting set

Author
item YALCIN, OZGECAN - Oregon State University
item King, Ryan
item Oliphant, James - Jim
item Bassil, Nahla

Submitted to: International Vaccinium Symposium
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/2024
Publication Date: 8/24/2024
Citation: Yalcin, O., King, R., Oliphant, J.M., Bassil, N.V. 2024. Confirming identity of blueberry cultivars with a microsatellite marker-based fingerprinting set. International Vaccinium Symposium.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR) in Corvallis, Oregon conserves a collection of more than 1,800 Vaccinium L. accessions representing 83 taxa from 34 countries. Verifying the genotypic identity of blueberry cultivars preserved at the NCGR is key for efficient genebank management. Previously, applying a 10-SSR fingerprinting set in blueberry identified four categories of plants: true-to-type (TTT) where morphology, SSR markers, and parentage analysis agreed; identity ok (IDOK) where a unique genotype was generated in multiple plants from different sources but parentage analysis was incomplete; identity question (IDQ) where allele composition did not match parentage and more testing is needed to confirm identity; and identity wrong (IDX) where incorrect identity is confirmed by parentage analysis and replacement with TTT is required. The objectives of this study were to confirm the identity of cultivars in the IDOK (11) category, resolve identity of cultivars in the IDQ (14) class, replace accessions in the IDX (6) category with TTT genotypes, and establish baseline fingerprints for the remaining cultivated blueberries (57) in the NCGR collection. Plants for most accessions in the IDOK, IDQ, and IDX categories were obtained from up to seven sources including four nurseries and three breeders. Genotyping 138 plants with the 10-SSR set identified 18 homonym and 13 synonym sets. Pedigree analysis confirmed trueness-to type of 15 cultivars including two previously classified as IDOK category (‘Bluechip’ and ‘Berkeley’), three IDQ (‘Brightwell’, NC 1528, and ‘Toro’), and three IDX (‘Briteblue’, ‘Darrow’, and ‘Woodard’). This fingerprinting set and database are valuable to ensure clonal identity of the NCGR blueberry collection, and will be used to identify unknown cultivars and verify identity of existing and new accessions.