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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Poplarville, Mississippi » Southern Horticultural Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #76470
Title: HERITABILITY OF ROSETTE RESISTANCE IN BLACKBERRY

Author
item Gupton, Creighton
item Smith, Barbara

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Research Notes
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/5/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Rosette is a blackberry disease that causes 100% crop failure after it becomes established in a planting. This study was conducted to determine if blackberry cultivars reported to be tolerant to rosette transmit it to offspring. Such information is a prerequisite to breeding blackberries tolerant to rosette. One cultivar, 'Humble', was very tolerant of the disease and transmitted it to offspring. 'Humble' is now being used as a source of resistance in a blackberry breeding program to develop cultivars that can tolerate rosette.

Technical Abstract: To determine if 'Humble', 'Brazos', and 'Rosborough' transmit rosette tolerance to their offspring, eleven crosses were made among seven blackberry cultivars. The parents and offspring were field grown and rated for disease severity on a scale of 0 = no rosette to 7 = all buds infected or plant dead. Only 'Humble' transmitted enough rosette tolerance to be usable. The heritability estimate of 0.48 was fairly high but low variability among parents other than 'Humble' would suggest little progress from mass selection using these seven cultivars or sources of tolerance.