DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISM-BASED MARKERS (KASP AND CAPS) FOR HIGH-TEMPERATURE STRESS TOLERANCE IN BLUEBERRIES

The main goal of this research is to develop high-throughput SNP-based KASP markers for high-temperature stress tolerance in blueberry that can facilitate marker assisted selection for generating heat-tolerant blueberry genotypes in breeding programs. This goal will be achieved by using the resources generated from our previous studies. We will select SNPs significantly associated with high-temperature stress tolerance and its associated traits, design KASP and CAPS assays for the selected SNPs and validate the designed assays in blueberry F2 population and cultivars.Specific objectives of this project are as follows: 1. Development of SNP-based KASP markers associated with high-temperature stress tolerance in blueberries. 2. Development of SNP-based CAPS markers for high-temperature stress tolerance in blueberries. 3. Validation of KASP and CAPS markers in F2 progenies and blueberry accessions. 4. Integration of the knowledge and resources from this project in teaching/training students and researchers at DSU and local blueberry farmers.