APPLICATION OF PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS TO IMPROVE BERRY SENSORY QUALITY

The following three objectives were formulated to enable us to achieve our primary goal of optimizing sensory quality of berry crops.Aim 1. Evaluate PGR treatments for their ability to modulate blueberry and strawberry quality parameters and flavor chemistry. H1. We hypothesize that ethylene and abscisic acid will increase ester concentration, methyl jasmonate will increase terpene concentration, and all PGR treatments will increase anthocyanins relative to untreated control samples.Aim 2. Conduct transcriptomic analyses to understand the molecular mechanisms leading to modified chemical composition by PGRs. H2. We hypothesize that finding the metabolic pathways and modulators being affected by PGRs will provide targets for future breeding and genome editing manipulation.Aim 3. Measure and model the relationship between berry chemistry and consumer perception of sweetness, flavor, and overall liking. H3. We hypothesize that strawberries with higher ester concentrations and blueberries with higher terpene and ester concentrations will be sweeter and better liked.