Blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) have been shown to have numerous health benefits. These benefits include the prevention of various diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, due to their antioxidant capacity. Yet, the issue at hand is that if the berries not aesthetically pleasing to consumers for both appearance and taste, the consumerst are less likely to consume the fruit. The goal of this research is to identify genetic regions within the blueberry genome that are associated with appearance to assist farmers in selectively breeding the fruit for desired aesthetic traits, while keeping the nutritional value. The antioxidant capacity for over 200 samples was determined through 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) analysis. Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance ( 1H-NMR) was used to identify primary and specialized metabolites present in V. corymbosum. Data were then used to create a metabolomic profile to observe how various metabolites over-lapped with others, as well as their position on the berry genome. The results of the experiments identified possible key genomic regions related to sugar synthesis and taste, as well as antioxidant capacity.

Identification of QTLs associated with consumer aesthetics and taste in Vaccinium corymbosum

255th National Meeting (2018)

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