Workshop: RosBREED Fruit Quality QTLs: From Publications to Applications

Objective(s):
Share experiences from the RosBREED project with the horticultural breeding community: (1) illustrate that QTL results are only the first step toward marker-assisted breeding; (2) explain how the desirable functional alleles need to be identified and then used to influence selection decisions; (3) demonstrate how QTL information can be translated into a genetic test for use in marker-assisted breeding; and (4) illustrate the use of genetic tests developed by RosBREED in fruit breeding programs to validate germplasm used for developing better cultivars.

“RosBREED” is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional project dedicated to enabling marker-assisted breeding of Rosaceae crops. Funded by the Specialty Crop Research Program of the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA–NIFA), the project aims to genetically improve five rosaceous crops (apple, sweet and sour cherry, peach, and strawberry) through the targeted application of genomics and socio-economics knowledge and tools to increase the efficiency of breeding programs, engage stakeholders, and train the next generation of plant breeders. RosBREED works closely with the U.S. Rosaceae genomics, genetics, and breeding community to move QTL discoveries beyond the publication phase and into the application phase so that conventional breeding programs can benefit from modern genomics tools through marker-assisted breeding (MAB). Through a process referred to as the “MAB Pipeline”, the project converts existing or newly discovered QTLs into routine genetic tests for marker-assisted selection. While the project focuses on fruit quality, the approach can be adopted by any breeding program of perennial and clonally propagated crops.

Abstracts: