NIFA NRI Rosaceae Plant Genome Program Accomplishments

A NIFA report summarizes the accomplishments, broad impacts and deliverables resulting from the twelve Rosaceae plant genome-related projects funded by the NIFA National Research Initiative (NRI) as of December 2006.

Specialty crops from the plant family Rosaceae represent $7 billion in value to US agriculture. They include many dominant fruit and nut, ornamental, and wood-bearing plants, including apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry, strawberry, almond, rose, blackberry, and raspberry. They not only contribute substantially to regional economies, but have consumer choice and nutrition benefits as well.

In 2005, the USDA-NIFA-NRI Plant Genome Program targeted the family Rosaceae for study, with the following priorities:

• Use of innovative approaches for mapping and identification of important genes (e.g., physical maps, ESTs, etc.), QTL analysis (e.g., fruit quality, shape, size, texture, color, flavor, nutritional composition, disease resistance, etc.) and comparative genomics

• Meet plant bioinformatic and database needs to efficiently and effectively handle and interpret new genomic/genetic data to accelerate the knowledge discovery process (Investigators are expected to coordinate their proposals with the Rosaceae genome database)

• Application of marker-assisted breeding/selection to characterize germplasm and, establish mapping populations

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