I just came back from Penn State after attending NCCC212 group meeting.

Had a good time, interacting with people with the same intersts

Last week we visited blueberry breeding programs of Georgia and Florida. On our way we stopped by to meet with Agristart's founder and employees. 

https://cals.ncsu.edu/news/breeding-better-blueberries/

It’s blueberry season in North Carolina, a time when the market for the fresh, locally grown fruit surges. At NC State University, Hamid Ashrafi is busy breeding better blueberries for that market.

When Ashrafi joined NC State’s Horticultural Science Department two years ago, he brought advanced skills in molecular marker-assisted breeding to one of the nation’s most important public blueberry breeding programs.

NC State breeders have developed and introduced more than 40 blueberry varieties — including some of North Carolina farmers’ favorites — since the program was started in the 1940s.

Back then, the breeding program’s focus was disease resistance, and that’s still important. But over the years, the program evolved to focus on some other traits that consumers and farmers want – higher yields, better taste and the firmness and crispiness levels needed to withstand the rigors of mechanical harvesting.

Traditional breeding — crossing one high performing plant with another, then selecting the best offspring and seeing how well they do in the field — can take a long time: up to 20 years for blueberries, Ashrafi said. But marker-assisted breeding can speed it up.

MAS isn’t genetic engineering; it’s a breeding shortcut that involves looking for sequences of nucleotides that make up a segment of DNA that are near the genes of interest.

Hamid Ashrafi

“I can grow the plants in a greenhouse, and when they are seedlings, I can get one leaf of each and run the markers,” Ashrafi explained. “Those that don’t have any potential for the trait I’m interested in, I don’t need to put them in the field. I can focus, early on, on the ones with the greatest potential.”

Ashrafi is also developing the genetic map and genome sequence for a southern high-bush blueberry that is widely grown in North Carolina and elsewhere in the world. He’s also studying the genetic interactions between blueberry plants and a pathogen that causes mummy berry — one of the most significant fungal diseases affecting highbush blueberries. The information that study reveals will be key, he said, in developing resistant varieties.

Ashrafi said that what sets NC State’s blueberry breeding apart from other breeding programs is its emphasis on developing high-yielding blueberry varieties that can be mechanically harvested. About 75 percent of North Carolina’s blueberries are sold fresh, and consumers don’t want fruit that’s been bruised during machine harvest, he said.

“Right now, 20 percent of blueberries are harvested mechanically, while 80 percent is handpicked,” he said. Because handpicking is expensive, he said, “We want to reverse that – we want 80 percent to be mechanically harvested and 20 percent handpicked.”

At the Castle Hayne Research Station north of Wilmington, in the heart of North Carolina blueberry production, Ashrafi is conducting experiments aimed at improving blueberry firmness and crispness without sacrificing yield.

In the end, Ashrafi said, the goal is to deliver berries that are not only profitable for farmers but also healthful and tasty for consumers.

We planted ~1000 plants in 4 hours, thanks to field crew and great lab members. We treated ourselves with a decent lunch at Proches Cafe (http://porchescafe.com/) 

L to R: Hamid, Jessica, Terry, Rishi, Elisheba and Jose.

Some strange disease on one of our blueberry crosses. We sent it to plant clinic for diagnosis.

We guess it might be Phomopsis or Phyllosticta

We were practicing some team building by hiking and BBQ. It was a cool day at Eno River, NC

L to R: Hamid, Farzaneh, Elisheba, Austin, Rishi, Abbey, David, Lauren
Front: Ryan and Nicole.

We are proud to announce that we are the first users of Sequel system at NCSU

Way to go Andy and Ashley

Blueberry group teamed up with PacBio to promote sequencing more blueberry genomes

From left to right: Ashley Yow, George Yuan, Elisheba Young, Hamid Ashrafi, Ben Walker, Rishi Aryal, David Keck and Robert Petursson

Glad to see the following email in my inbox.

Directors of Graduate Programs,

I am pleased to announce the winners of the 12th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium! Please see attached. As you know, the Symposium was held yesterday, Wednesday, March 22. Poster presentations were divided into eight broad academic categories. Judges selected a first, second and third place winner in each category.

The abstract book is posted on the Symposium web site at grad.ncsu.edu/research/symposium.

We will announce the winners on the web and through other means as well...but I wanted to send you this information as soon as possible.

Please join me in congratulating all of our winners!

Thanks!

Dave

Ashley Yow, my masters student won the 2nd place prize. Congratulations to Ashley.

+Another year of crossing+

Almost three weeks ago Rishi Aryal joined our group and he is already hit the ground and running.