Articles
Breeding for fruit quality of highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) at the National Institute of Horticultural Research, Skierniewice, Poland
Article number
1412_30
Pages
199 – 206
Language
English
Abstract
The applied breeding program of the northern highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) was started in 2009 at the Department of Horticultural Crop Breeding (DHCB) of the National Institute of Horticultural Research (InHort) in Skierniewice, Poland.
The main breeding goals are similar to those implemented in other breeding centers worldwide.
The most important are the development of native cultivars, well adapted to local climatic and soil conditions, which are winter hardy, high yielding, resistant to the main fungal diseases, with varying times of fruit ripening.
Good fruit quality is also essential, with a need for large attractive fruit that are firm with prolonged shelf life.
New dessert cultivars should meet the requirements of the fresh fruit market with fruit of high nutritional value and health benefits.
Molecular methods support the classical breeding to accelerate and increase the efficiency of this work.
Recognition of molecular mechanisms of biosynthesis of fruit healthy supplements is crucial for breeding of new highbush blueberry cultivars.
Molecular analyses (SSR’s) of genetic diversity at the DNA level of 7 highbush blueberry cultivars from the breeding collection of the DHCB allowed to distinguish two main clusters containing cultivars ‘Bluegold’, ‘Bonifacy’, ‘Jorma’ and ‘Aurora’, ‘Rubel’, ‘Toro’, ‘Liberty’, differ in regard to fruit wax coat intensity.
Additionally, the evaluation of expression profile of six genes involved in cuticular wax formation pathway, encoding: acetyl coenzyme A – fat reductase (CR1, CR3 and FAR), acetyl coenzyme A – fat synthase (KCS4), lipid transporter protein (LTP) and WSD1 – wax synthase, was performed in regard the fruit skin and fruit flesh samples of selected cultivars.
The analyzed genes showed a significantly higher level of activity in the ripe fruit skin of cultivars characterized by the presence of a wax cuticle in comparison to samples collected from fruits whit low intensity of wax coat.
The main breeding goals are similar to those implemented in other breeding centers worldwide.
The most important are the development of native cultivars, well adapted to local climatic and soil conditions, which are winter hardy, high yielding, resistant to the main fungal diseases, with varying times of fruit ripening.
Good fruit quality is also essential, with a need for large attractive fruit that are firm with prolonged shelf life.
New dessert cultivars should meet the requirements of the fresh fruit market with fruit of high nutritional value and health benefits.
Molecular methods support the classical breeding to accelerate and increase the efficiency of this work.
Recognition of molecular mechanisms of biosynthesis of fruit healthy supplements is crucial for breeding of new highbush blueberry cultivars.
Molecular analyses (SSR’s) of genetic diversity at the DNA level of 7 highbush blueberry cultivars from the breeding collection of the DHCB allowed to distinguish two main clusters containing cultivars ‘Bluegold’, ‘Bonifacy’, ‘Jorma’ and ‘Aurora’, ‘Rubel’, ‘Toro’, ‘Liberty’, differ in regard to fruit wax coat intensity.
Additionally, the evaluation of expression profile of six genes involved in cuticular wax formation pathway, encoding: acetyl coenzyme A – fat reductase (CR1, CR3 and FAR), acetyl coenzyme A – fat synthase (KCS4), lipid transporter protein (LTP) and WSD1 – wax synthase, was performed in regard the fruit skin and fruit flesh samples of selected cultivars.
The analyzed genes showed a significantly higher level of activity in the ripe fruit skin of cultivars characterized by the presence of a wax cuticle in comparison to samples collected from fruits whit low intensity of wax coat.
Authors
S. Pluta, S. Keller-Przybyłkowicz, L. Seliga, A. Walencik
Keywords
northern type blueberry, breeding goals, dessert cultivars, transcripts, regulatory genes, wax coat
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