Agronomically important genetic variation in much
of the ARS grape germplasm collection will be indexed in a new project.
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The Goal: Finding--and Using--Key Grape Genes
By Ann Perry
April 16, 2008 The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) works closely with the
National Grape and Wine Initiative, a
nationwide coalition representing all segments of the grape industry, to
support grape producers nationwide. As part of this support, ARS scientists are
embarking on a study to index the useful genetic variation of more than 2,000
accessions in the ARS grape germplasm collection.
ARS plant geneticist
Ed
Buckler works at the agency's Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and
Health (RWHC),
formerly the U.S. Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory in Ithaca, N.Y. He will
collaborate with other scientists to genetically characterize many of the
Vitis accessions held in ARS germplasm collections. ARS is the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief
scientific research agency.
Bucklers research team will locate thousands of single nucleotide
polymorphisms (SNPs) throughout the grape accessions to create a functional SNP
index to thousands of functional variants in the grape genome. SNPs are DNA
sequence variations that occur when a single nucleotide in the genome sequence
is altered. Such genomic variations may hold the key for controlling variation
in traits for enhancing grape quality, such as disease resistance or better
berry color.
RWHC computational biologist
Doreen
Ware will conduct quality-control analysis of the grape genomic data. She
will use the genomic data and an estimated 350,000 available grape expressed
sequence tagsshort snippets of DNAto find likely SNPs for further
study. This will enable grape geneticists to start connecting molecular
diversity with trait variation.
Other ARS scientists involved in this project include plant physiologist
Leon
Kochian, also at RWHC, and plant geneticists
Chuck
Simon and
Gan-Yuan
Zhong. Simon is with the
ARS
Plant Genetic Resources Unit and Zhong is with the
ARS
Grape Genetics Research Unit, both located in Geneva, N.Y.
Simon will complement the efforts of this research initiative by expanding
and coordinating the evaluation of the grape germplasm collection for
horticulturally important traits. Zhong will use the results of the research to
assist grape breeders and producers in creating more robust and appealing grape
varieties.