Review of Vaccinium breeding research and prospects for its future directions
image: QTLs identified in blueberry through GWAS and QTL mapping studies. view more
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Recently, plant biologists from the United States and New Zealand published an article in Horticulture Research that summarizes achievements and objectives in various aspects of blueberry fruit crop research, providing valuable resources for blueberry research and drawing a useful roadmap for future studies.
The authors highlight the first high-quality chromosome-scale assemblies for blueberry, cranberry, and bilberry, which have been published over the past several years and provide an excellent set of resources for furthering our understanding of the underlying genetics of various important target traits. Future construction of pangenomes for each of these crops will be instrumental in helping us further quantify and dissect the diversity present in wild populations and various breeding programs. Efforts are currently underway to construct pangenomes for blueberry and cranberry as part of the VacCAP project, a multi-state and multi-disciplinary project whose mission is to advance genetic resources and develop new superior blueberry and cranberry cultivars. Several community efforts are also underway to develop new genotyping tools, which, when combined with emerging accurate and high-throughput phenotyping technologies, will help to greatly accelerate genetic discoveries and advance breeding efforts. This collection of tools and resources will allow us to construct a roadmap for introgression of beneficial target gene content from wild germplasm into breeding populations and to guide genetic engineering efforts aimed at developing new superior cultivars (Fig. 1).
“A lot of genetic and phenotypic diversity still exists in wild populations, which could be utilized to further improve the resilience of Vaccinium crops to diverse (a)biotic stresses and various fruit quality traits. This will remain particularly important as we continue to manage production issues related to global climate change,” said the authors.
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Reference
Authors
Patrick P. Edger1,2,*, Massimo Iorizzo3,4,*, Nahla V. Bassil5, Juliana Benevenuto6, Luis Felipe V. Ferrão6, Lara Giongo7, Kim Hummer5, Lovely Mae F. Lawas8, Courtney P. Leisner8, Changying Li9, Patricio R. Munoz6, Hamid Ashrafi4, Amaya Atucha10, Ebrahiem M. Babiker11, Elizabeth Canales12, David Chagné13,Lisa DeVetter14, Mark Ehlenfeldt15, Richard V. Espley13, Karina Gallardo16, Catrin S. Günther13, Michael Hardigan17, Amanda M. Hulse-Kemp18,19, MacKenzie Jacobs1,20, Mary Ann Lila3, Claire Luby17, Dorrie Main21, Molla F. Mengist3,4, Gregory L. Owens22, Penelope Perkins-Veazie4, James Polashock15, Marti Pottorff3, Lisa J. Rowland23, Charles A. Sims24, Guo-qing Song25, Jessica Spencer4, Nicholi Vorsa15, Alan E. Yocca1,26 and Juan Zalapa27
Affiliations
1 Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA
2 MSU AgBioResearch, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA
3 Plants for Human Health Institute, North Carolina State University, Kannapolis, NC USA
4 Department of Horticultural Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC USA
5 USDA-ARS, National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, OR 97333, USA
6 Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
7 Fondazione Edmund Mach - Research and Innovation Centre Italy
8 Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
9 Phenomics and Plant Robotics Center, College of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, USA
10 Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
11 USDA-ARS Southern Horticultural Laboratory, Poplarville, MS 39470-0287, USA
12 Department of Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
13 The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited (PFR), Palmerston North, New Zealand
14 Department of Horticulture, Washington State University Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center, Mount Vernon, WA, 98221, USA
15 SEBS, Plant Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ 01019 USA
16 School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Puyallup, WA 98371, USA
17 USDA-ARS, Horticulture Crops Research Unit, Corvallis, OR 97333, USA
18 USDA-ARS, Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Unit, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
19 Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
20 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA
21 Department of Horticulture, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99163, USA
22 Department of Biology, University of Victoria, BC, Canada
23 USDA-ARS, Genetic Improvement of Fruits and Vegetables Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
24 Food Science and Human Nutrition Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
25 Plant Biotechnology Resource and Outreach Center, Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
26 Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA
27 USDA-ARS, VCRU, Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
About Dr. Patrick P. Edger and Dr. Massimo Iorizzo
Patrick P. Edger works in the Department of Horticulture and MSU AgBioResearch, Michigan State University, in East Lansing.
Massimo Iorizzo works at North Carolina State University in the Plants for Human Health Institute and Department of Horticultural Science.