Project Number: 1910-21000-020-19
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jul 01, 2012
End Date: Jun 30, 2015

Objective:
The objective of this research is to characterize genomic and phenotypic variation patterns of fruit quality traits in the worldwide apple germplasm collection maintained in the USDA-ARS Plant Genetic Resources Unit (PGRU) in Geneva, New York. The information obtained from this study will provide a critical foundation for future development of fruit quality traits through marker-trait association analysis and breeding. It will help accelerate the progress of utilizing Malus germplasm for apple improvement worldwide.

Approach:
Evaluate both fruit and biochemical quality traits in apples. The fruit traits include fruit size, firmness and stage of maturity; and the biochemical traits include sugar, organic acids, phenolic compounds and vitamin C. Focus on the core collection of Malus domestica maintained in the USDA-ARS Geneva Malus repository in this study. Genetic segregation populations and breeding lines from Cornell Apple Scion Breeding Program will also be included. Use HPLC and other analytical instruments to evaluate the phenotypic variation of primary and secondary metabolites. PGRU has an ongoing Malus GBS (genotyping-by-sequencing) Project from which tens of thousands of SNPs will be soon generated on the entire Malus collection preserved in PGRU. We will have access to the SNP information generated from the GBS Project. In this study, we will focus on generating SNP data from segregation populations and breeding lines which are not covered by the GBS Project. GBS library construction and sequencing will be done through a service at Cornell University. Investigate marker-trait association through association and linkage mapping analyses. Distribution of research results through publications and other means.