Breeding Trait Priorities of the Blueberry Industry in the United States and Canada

Abstract

<jats:p>Developing new blueberry cultivars requires plant breeders to be aware of current and emerging needs throughout the supply chain, from producer to consumer. Because breeding perennial crop plants (such as blueberry) is time- and resource-intensive, understanding and targeting priority traits is critical to enhancing the efficiency of breeding programs. This study assesses blueberry industry breeding priorities for fruit and plant quality traits based on a survey conducted at commodity group meetings across nine U.S. states and in British Columbia (Canada) between Nov. 2016 and Mar. 2017. In general, industry responses signaled that the most important trait cluster was fruit quality including the firmness, flavor, and shelf life. Fruit quality traits affect price premiums received by producers; influence consumer’s preferences; and have the potential to increase the feasibility of mechanical harvesting, all critical to the economic viability of the industry. There were differences across regions in the relative importance assigned to traits for disease resistance, arthropod resistance, and tolerance to abiotic stresses. Our findings will be useful to researchers seeking solutions for challenges to the North American blueberry industry including development of new cultivars with improved traits using accelerated DNA-based selection strategies.</jats:p>

Ammonium Uptake Is the Main Driver of Rhizosphere pH in Southern Highbush Blueberry

“…Thus, determining whether SHB is capable of acidifying its rhizosphere independently of N form might be a first step in breeding blueberries that tolerate neutral or higher pH soils. This trait has been identified as a priority for blueberry breeders in the United States and Canada (Gallardo et al, 2018).…”

Characterization and Pathogenicity of Stem Blight Complex Isolates Associated with Stem Blight Disease on Vaccinium Species

“…A recent survey of blueberry growers in the United States and Canada indicated that stem blight is among the more important blueberry diseases (Gallardo et al, 2018). Accelerating the evaluation process and increasing the accuracy of selection are necessary for introgression of disease resistance genes into widely adapted blueberry cultivars.…”

Breeding Trait Priorities of the Cranberry Industry in the United States and Canada

“…To quantify the importance of traits and industry related variables across regions, we analyzed the data using an ordered probit model given that the dependent variable, the ranking of traits, was discrete and ordinal as described by Gallardo et al (2018). Each breeding trait described in the previous section was included in the econometric model as a variable, and was assigned a number according to each respondent's ranking.…”

“…Traits not identified by the respondent as being among the most or the least important in the trait cluster fruit quality were considered middle choices and were assigned the median value, in this case 3. This method has been used in previous research to elicit the relative level of importance of product attributes (Davis and Gillespie, 2004;Gallardo et al, 2018;Greene and Hensher, 2008;Yue et al, 2013).…”

“…Determining breeding priorities is challenging, since trait relevance often varies across the supply chain. As a result, only a few studies have investigated trait priorities for plant breeding programs (Gallardo et al, 2012(Gallardo et al, , 2018Yue et al, 2013).…”