Berry breeding boost: New partnership aims to improve varieties through gene editing

18 Jun 2019 --- Agriculture and food company Pairwise has entered into a public-private partnership, with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which could lead to healthier and more sustainable varieties of berries. The collaboration comes as the fruit is making waves in the snacking category as a convenient and healthy option for on-the-go lifestyles. The partnership with the USDA, several leading academic institutions and Plant Sciences, Inc. (PSI), an agricultural research company, will study Rubus, or caneberry crops, and identify natural variation for future breeding and gene editing opportunities.

The idea is to learn more about the diversity of berries and advance opportunities to offer sustainable varieties to keep pace with demand for the fruit.

“Berries are increasingly a consumer go-to for a healthy, flavorful food option. We want to make berries more available and affordable for more people,” says Pairwise Head of Product Discovery, Dr. Ryan Rapp. “One of the most unique aspects of this partnership is that we will make the resulting data available to the public.”

“Offering access to this information will help plant breeders around the world create new and improved berry varieties better adapted to meet the growing demand for healthy food choices,” he adds. 

Scientists and researchers from Pairwise; PSI; the University of Arkansas; the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Corvallis, Oregon; Cornell University and North Carolina State University, will collaborate to identify and characterize the genetic diversity in blackberries, red raspberries and black raspberries, as well as multiple wild caneberry species such as salmon and thimbleberries.

With this information, the teams will work to determine how the natural genetic diversity of wild and domesticated varieties can be used to improve breeding outcomes, and how gene editing can be used to bring new and better berries to both consumers and growers. 

“We have invested extensively in our caneberry breeding programs,” adds PSI Chief Executive Officer Steve Nelson. “We are excited to now bring what we’ve learned to this partnership to further drive innovation in the berry category.”

Plant breeders and growers need a bigger toolbox to address some of the challenges they face in providing great products to consumers, according to Dr. Margaret Worthington, Assistant Professor of Fruit Breeding and Genetics at the University of Arkansas, Department of Horticulture. “This collaboration will accelerate the development of new tools and technologies and expand opportunities to produce caneberries,” she says.

The study will include two years of field testing with more than 300 unique species and accessions of Rubus. Whole genomes, resequencing and phenotyping data for all public lines will be shared with the public to enable additional study and accelerate applications for breeding.