Two Lines Enable FasTrack Breeding in Blueberry

The juvenile period of blueberry seedlings typically lasts ≈3 to 4 years. To shorten this period and facilitate FasTrack breeding, we developed transgenic ‘Aurora’ blueberry plants with constitutive expression of the blueberry FLOWERING LOCUS T gene, enabling flowering of T0 transformants within jus...

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Main Author: Guo-qing Song
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) 2024-12-01
Series:Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
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Online Access:https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/150/1/article-p28.xml
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author Guo-qing Song
author_facet Guo-qing Song
author_sort Guo-qing Song
collection DOAJ
description The juvenile period of blueberry seedlings typically lasts ≈3 to 4 years. To shorten this period and facilitate FasTrack breeding, we developed transgenic ‘Aurora’ blueberry plants with constitutive expression of the blueberry FLOWERING LOCUS T gene, enabling flowering of T0 transformants within just 1 year. To evaluate the potential of these transgenic lines in accelerating breeding cycles, we crossed transgenic ‘Aurora’ with transgenic southern highbush blueberry ‘Legacy’, referred to as Mu-Legacy. Mu-Legacy also exhibited early flowering mainly as a result of a transgene insertion, making it suitable for FasTrack breeding. Over 2 years of phenotyping, we observed that transgenic seedlings flowered consistently each year, whereas nontransgenic seedlings did not produce any flowers. These results suggest that either the constitutive expression of the blueberry FLOWERING LOCUS T gene or the specific transgene insertion site in transgenic ‘Legacy’ can effectively shorten the juvenile phase of blueberry plants. Given the significance of ‘Aurora’ and ‘Legacy’ in blueberry production, these transgenic lines emerge as a valuable tool for accelerating blueberry breeding programs.
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spelling doaj-art-e01896e0dc3d4d828fc6855af2447bff2025-08-20T02:34:48ZengAmerican Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS)Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science2327-97882024-12-011501https://doi.org/10.21273/JASHS05447-24Two Lines Enable FasTrack Breeding in BlueberryGuo-qing Song0Plant Biotechnology Resource and Outreach Center, Department of Horticulture, Michigan State UniversityThe juvenile period of blueberry seedlings typically lasts ≈3 to 4 years. To shorten this period and facilitate FasTrack breeding, we developed transgenic ‘Aurora’ blueberry plants with constitutive expression of the blueberry FLOWERING LOCUS T gene, enabling flowering of T0 transformants within just 1 year. To evaluate the potential of these transgenic lines in accelerating breeding cycles, we crossed transgenic ‘Aurora’ with transgenic southern highbush blueberry ‘Legacy’, referred to as Mu-Legacy. Mu-Legacy also exhibited early flowering mainly as a result of a transgene insertion, making it suitable for FasTrack breeding. Over 2 years of phenotyping, we observed that transgenic seedlings flowered consistently each year, whereas nontransgenic seedlings did not produce any flowers. These results suggest that either the constitutive expression of the blueberry FLOWERING LOCUS T gene or the specific transgene insertion site in transgenic ‘Legacy’ can effectively shorten the juvenile phase of blueberry plants. Given the significance of ‘Aurora’ and ‘Legacy’ in blueberry production, these transgenic lines emerge as a valuable tool for accelerating blueberry breeding programs.https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/150/1/article-p28.xmlearly floweringfloral initiationflowering locus tjuvenilitywoody plant
spellingShingle Guo-qing Song
Two Lines Enable FasTrack Breeding in Blueberry
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
early flowering
floral initiation
flowering locus t
juvenility
woody plant
title Two Lines Enable FasTrack Breeding in Blueberry
title_full Two Lines Enable FasTrack Breeding in Blueberry
title_fullStr Two Lines Enable FasTrack Breeding in Blueberry
title_full_unstemmed Two Lines Enable FasTrack Breeding in Blueberry
title_short Two Lines Enable FasTrack Breeding in Blueberry
title_sort two lines enable fastrack breeding in blueberry
topic early flowering
floral initiation
flowering locus t
juvenility
woody plant
url https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/150/1/article-p28.xml
work_keys_str_mv AT guoqingsong twolinesenablefastrackbreedinginblueberry