Grant Supports Blackberry Research in Arkansas
Researchers who breed new cultivars of fruits and vegetables are constantly striving to develop ones that match consumers’ tastes and preferences. This mission can be challenging, but a researcher with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station is bringing new tools to the job with funding support from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Margaret Worthington, associate professor of fruit breeding and genetics for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, has tasted a lot of blackberries and knows what a good berry tastes like. However, consumer sensory panels are more accurate and objective than a fruit breeder’s ratings. As the principal investigator for a new USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant, she will use new genomic tools and novel approaches for improving flavor to support her efforts in propelling the largest public-sector breeding program for fresh-market blackberries in the United States.
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s blackberry breeding program has developed and patented 43 fresh-market blackberry cultivars, including many combining erect growth habit, thornlessness, and improved shipping ability. The first primocane-fruiting blackberry cultivars, which produce fruit on first-year canes, were also developed in the breeding program. The experiment station is the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.
Genomic Tools and Sensory Panels
NIFA will administer the 0,000 Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant over the next four years. In addition to more data from consumer panels, the grant also provides funding to conduct studies that identify genomic variants statistically associated with a particular trait, known as genome-wide association mapping.
-importance of Consumer Feedback
Consumer sensory panels are considered the “gold standard for evaluating flavor in fruit crops.” They cost money and time but are essential for discovering what drives consumer preferences. Comparing the chemistry data on blackberries with consumer panel data will give the team much more power to make inferences about what consumers want and how to breed blackberries. A common complaint about blackberries from consumers and grocers is that they are too tart or not sweet enough, either from being picked too early or simply having two prerequisites.
Overcoming Challenges
Worthington noted that even with the rise in blackberry consumption and sales, inconsistent flavor is considered a barrier to industry growth. Operating consumer sensory panels during the blackberry harvest season is difficult to manage in tandem with regular blackberry breeding duties. However, a pandemic-era protocol devised by Threlfall’s team allows Worthington’s team to conduct the sensory panels in the winter and spring when they are less busy with blackberry breeding duties. The protocol involves freezing blackberries after harvest, thawing them, and making a puree for tasting right before the sensory panels take place.
New Possibilities
This scale of a project would not have been feasible even a few years ago. Factors like Worthington’s work with a team of international scientists who assembled the first complete sequence of the blackberry genome, and the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on how research is conducted, have made this project possible.