03/15/06 Genome Mapping

Genome mapping for better fruit. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Fruit Grower Report. Orchardists have long sought a way to make better fruit. Now with the help of research being done at Washington State University in Pullman, better fruit may soon be a reality. Dorrie Main is an associate professor of horticulture and a scientist in the WSU Agricultural Research Center has undertaken the painstaking task of mapping the DNA mosaic of the rosaceous family, which includes Washington`s largest crop - apples - and other tree fruit as well as cherries, peaches, berries and nuts. Main primarily focuses on the genes that are connected to fruit quality like sugar and acid levels, the color, firmness and size. Other benefits include cold hardiness, disease resistance and post-harvest decay. According to Main, one of the chief benefits to her work is a shortening of the time between breeding-improved tree fruit varieties and actually planting them for production. She says they are working on speeding up the time to crop improvement, which will enhance the productivity and competitiveness of Washington fruit tree growers. The work can be tedious and time consuming. About the job Main says they take all of the known genes in the public gene bank and analyze them based on function. They are looking at 250,000 gene fragments and pulling out what`s meaningful. Bottom line results are that better apples, peaches, pears and cherries will get to market sooner. I'm Greg Martin and that's todays Fruit Grower Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.