DEVELOPING AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO COMBAT GRAY MOLD IN STRAWBERRIES

The long-term goal of our research is to develop strawberry varieties which are resistant to gray mold fruit rot fungus and educate growers in minimizing the fruit loss. The main objective of this current research is to identify genotypes and their associated loci, which can contribute for resistance to gray mold fruit rot, develop genome wide markers for molecular breeding and educate growers on the advancements.Our specific objectives for this study are as follows. 1. Phenotyping of strawberry accessions for gray mold disease and its associated traits 2.High-throughput genotyping of the lines utilized by Genotyping-by -Sequencing (GBS) and identification of novel SNP markers 3.Develop first ever QTL maps and genome-wide associations for gray mold resistance 4.Conduct field evaluation trials, extension and outreach activities to educate underserved and small farmers in Delmarva region 5.Post-harvest experimentation with the plant volatile Thymol for increasing shelf life and disseminating information for growers and producers 6.Integration of knowledge and resources from this project into teaching/training of students and researchers at DSU, Virginia State University and Virginia Polytech Institute and local strawberry growers.