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- Author or Editor: Richard E. Harrison x
Runners from 318 plants representing 37 populations across the northern tier of US states, from Washington to New York, were collected and planted in two replications in a common greenhouse environment to assess morphological variation among octoploid strawberries (Fragaria chiloensis, F. virginiana spp. glauca and F. v. spp. virginiana). DNA was also extracted from these plants to determine molecular variation using RAPD's (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA). Preliminary data suggest that the following morphological characters are useful traits in assessing diversity: flowering and runnering date; sex; petiole and peduncle hairs; petiole and peduncle color; leaf color, size, shape and density; and powdery mildew resistance. Preliminary RAPD data has revealed many useful molecular markers capable of detecting variability from the intrapopulation to interspecific level. Analysis of these data will determine relative genetic distances among the populations and provide a more complete understanding of the diversity available to the strawberry breeder in the octoploid taxa native to North America.
Pollination of the half-high blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L./V. anugustifolium Ait.) cultivars St. Cloud, Northsky, Northcountry, and Northblue with self, outcross, and outcross/self pollen mixtures suggests that outcross fertilization maximizes percent fruit set, berry weight, seeds per berry, and seeds per pollination while minimizing days to harvest. Based on these results, mixed plantings of at least two blueberry cultivars are recommended for these cultivars. Fruit and seed set were negatively associated with increased percentages of self pollen in outcross/self pollen mixtures. These responses were linear for `Northblue' due to a tendency to parthenocarpy, and nonlinear for `St. Cloud', `Northsky', and `Northcountry', due to low fruit set following self-pollination. These data indicate that post-fertilization abortion affected seed formation, which was, in turn, correlated positively with fruit set.
Restriction fragment-length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) were used to study phylogenetic relationships among twenty-six Fragaria taxa and two closely related species, Potentilla fruticosa L. and Duchesnea indica (Andrews) Focke. Sixteen restriction enzymes and probes of the entire Nicotiana tabacum L. chloroplast genome revealed a very low level of variation among the Fragaria taxa, limiting phylogenetic resolution. However, Fragaria appears to be more closely related to Potentilla than Duchesnea. The diploid taxa, F. iinumae Makino, F. nilgerrensis Schlect. and F. vesca L. were the most divergent Fragaria taxa and F. iinumae appears to be the most ancestral taxon. Little variation was revealed within the economically important octoploid group of taxa, which gave rise to the cultivated strawberry, and no progenitor taxa to the octoploid group could be identified. The lack of variation in the chloroplast genome suggests that these Fragaria species may be of relatively recent evolutionary origin.
Fruit from three red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) cultivars—`Glen Clova', `Glen Lyon', and `Glen Moy'—were harvested from four sites on two harvest dates and evaluated fresh or following storage at -20 °C to determine the relative importance of genotype, harvest date, location and freezing effects on 19 sensory attributes using a trained sensory panel. Freezing and cultivar × freezing interaction effects were relatively large while site, harvest date, and other interactions were of minor importance. The cultivar × freezing interaction was caused by differential responses among cultivars for the sensory attributes purple, juicy, sweet, and raspberry aroma with less discrimination among cultivars postfreezing. `Glen Clova' fresh fruit received the highest values for juicy, fruity, sweet, and raspberry aroma; `Glen Moy' fresh fruit received the highest values for purple; `Glen Lyon' fresh fruit received the lowest values for juicy, postfreezing, `Glen Lyon' received the highest values for purple and sweet and all three cultivars were similar for the other attributes. These data suggest that selection for improved postfreezing sensory characteristics should not rely solely on fresh fruit evaluations although further study of a more genetically diverse group of genotypes would be beneficial. The significant cultivar and minimal harvest date and location effects suggest that these fruit sensory analysis methods should be useful in selecting raspberry genotypes with superior fruit quality.