Project in brief

The fruit of raspberry is playing an increasingly important role in the national and international fruit scene, as demonstrated by the increases in consumption observed in recent years. Consumers increasingly appreciate this fruit for its excellent quality properties as well as for its nutraceutical role in human health. Despite these advantages, the marketing of this fruit is still severely limited by its perishability, which prevents it from reaching distant but potentially interesting markets. The cultivation of raspberries has only recently become established compared to other fruit species, undergoing a limited domestication process. For this reason, some aspects of the fruit, such as shelf life, are still unsuitable for meeting modern commercial requirements. To address these markets, various genetic improvement programs are mostly focused on improving the shelf-life of this fruit. Given the complex nature of this property, traditional genetic improvement can now be supported by effective and more informative tools, such as molecular markers. The application of different disciplines and knowledge will improve the effectiveness of selecting new raspberry accessions distinguished by superior fruit quality.

Project objectives

The GARA project is defined by a series of distinct but integrated objectives. 

• The first objective refers to the definition of a new methodology for phenotyping the texture of raspberry fruit using a high-resolution texture analyzer. Once developed, this texture characterization strategy will be extended to a collection of raspberry genotypes for the analysis of texture properties at harvest and after a storage phase, necessary for the definition of the storage index. 
• The second objective is to analyze the profile of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the fruit during the two phases of harvesting and post-storage. This analysis will enable the definition of objective parameters for fruit quality that can be integrated into the storage index assessment.
• The third objective is to analyze the genetic characterization of the individuals in the collection using SNP markers already available for this set of plant material. 

Once these phases are complete, the third objective will be pursued, where the data will be integrated into a QTL mapping study aimed at identifying the regions of the genome involved in controlling these properties. These regions will allow both the creation of markers useful for the assisted selection of the most promising accessions and the identification of genes likely to be involved in the softening of raspberry.    

Impact

Raspberries are currently one of the most promising and commercially interesting fruits. Several breeding programs are being launched to improve the quality of this fruit, which is still largely unexplored. Basic knowledge of these phenomena is still relatively scarce for raspberries and cannot be compared to other fruit species, as demonstrated by scientific literature. This project will therefore improve basic scientific knowledge of this species, providing important tools for genetic improvement aimed at selecting new accessions with high commercial impact.

Funding

The project refers to the type of free scholarship and therefore is not supported by an institutional budget, but is supported by Sant'Orsola, a leading cooperative in the soft berry sector.

Team

• Paolo Zucchi: Sant’Orsola e studente C3A- University of Trento
• prof. Fabrizio Costa: C3A-University of Trento 
• prof.ssa Sonia Osorio: University of Malaga