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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Genetic Improvement for Fruits & Vegetables Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #300160
Title: BBGD454: A database for transcriptome analysis of blueberry using 454 sequences

Author
item DARWISH, OMAR - Towson University
item Rowland, Lisa
item ALKHAROUF, NADIM - Towson University

Submitted to: Bioinformation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/15/2013
Publication Date: 10/16/2013
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/61447
Citation: Darwish, O., Rowland, L.J., Alkharouf, N.W. 2013. BBGD454: A database for transcriptome analysis of blueberry using 454 sequences. Bioinformation. 9(17):883-886.

Interpretive Summary: Blueberry is a major berry crop in the United States and one that has great nutritional and economical value. As with many crops, freezing temperatures in winter and early spring can reduce blueberry yield and cause major losses to farmers. A better understanding of blueberry genes and identification of genes that protect plants from low temperature are needed to produce blueberry cultivars with enhanced cold hardiness. To that end, we have developed and made publicly available a database of blueberry genes. The database is website accessible and contains information on activity of genes from blueberry flower buds, leaves, and fruit in response to low temperature stress. The gene information is available in easy-to-use searchable formats. This website makes a wealth of information available to scientists attempting to develop more cold hardy and more nutritious varieties of blueberry.

Technical Abstract: Blueberry is an economically and nutritionally important small fruit crop, native to North America. As with many crops, extreme low temperature can affect blueberry crop yield negatively and cause major losses to growers. For this reason, blueberry breeding programs have focused on developing improved cultivars with broader climatic adaptation. To help achieve this goal, the blueberry genomic database (BBGD454) was developed to provide the research community with valuable resources to identify genes that play an important role in flower bud and fruit development, cold acclimation and chilling accumulation in blueberry. The database was developed using SQLServer2008 to house 454 transcript sequences, annotations and gene expression profiles of blueberry genes. BBGD454 can be accessed publically from a web-based interface; this website provides search and browse functionalities to allow scientists to access and search the data in order to correlate gene expression with gene function in different stages of blueberry fruit ripening, at different stages of cold acclimation of flower buds, and in leaves. It can be accessed from: http://bioinformatics.towson.edu/BBGD454/