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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #433588
Title: NPGS blackberries – Prickleless canes

Author
item CRAWFORD, BRIAN - Pairwise
item WORTHINGTON, MARGARET - University Of Arkansas
item Bassil, Nahla

Submitted to: Book / Chapter / eBook
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/17/2026
Publication Date: 5/4/2026
Citation: Crawford, B., Worthington, M., Bassil, N.V. 2026. NPGS blackberries – Prickleless canes. In: Volk G.M., Chen K.Y., Byrne P.F., Bretting P.K., editors. Plant Genetic Resources: Success Stories. Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University. Available from https://colostate.pressbooks.pub/pgrsuccessstories/chapter/npgs-blackberries-prickleless-canes/.

Interpretive Summary: Educational/training resources are being developed for topics related to plant genetic resources management and use. This is an ebook chapter that will be published in "Plant Genetic Resources: Success Stories". This ebook chapter is publicly available at: https://colostate.pressbooks.pub/pgrsuccessstories/chapter/

Technical Abstract: From 2018 to 2025, a large research team led by scientists at Pairwise Company collaborated to uncover the gene(s) responsible for “prickleless” (also called “thornless”) canes (another name for “stems”) in caneberries (raspberries, blackberries, etc.). Extensive morphological analyses, genome sequencing, and analyses of these data for more than 500 diverse germplasm accessions from the USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR) in Corvallis, Oregon uncovered the causal factors for prickleless canes in caneberries as the genes encoding the WOX1 protein. This finding, confirmed through gene editing, represents a major advance for blackberry and raspberry genetic improvement because it can enable precise breeding and gene editing to deliver prickleless cultivars.