Plant & Animal Genomes XI Conference

January 11-15, 2003
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Poster: Genome Sequencing & ESTs
            

EST ANALYSIS FOR THE STUDY OF COLD HARDINESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF EST-PCR MARKERS IN BLUEBERRY

USDA/ARS, Fruit Laboratory,Bldg 010A, 10300 Baltimore Avenue,BARC-West, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA

Although the United States is the world’s leading blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) producer, it lacks sufficient number of winter hardy and spring frost resistant cultivars. Our laboratory has been studying genetic and molecular aspects of cold hardiness in blueberry in order to identify markers/genes associated with this trait. These markers/genes, once identified, can be used to develop cold hardy cultivars that can be grown in a wider geographical region by marker assisted breeding or transgenics. Our current genomics project involves partial sequencing of cDNA clones from cold acclimated and non-acclimated flower buds to identify and compare genes expressed under both conditions. So far, about 500 cDNA clones have been sequenced from the 5’ends from each of these libraries and the genes are being characterized by identifying homologous nucleotide and amino acid sequences in Genbank. About 200 of these clones have been sequenced from the 3’ ends as well and primers developed based on their 5’ and 3’ sequences. Primer pairs have been used to develop EST-PCR markers that appear to have general utility for DNA fingerprinting and mapping in blueberry.