Peach Genome

Peach Genome. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. I finally broke down a bought a GPS unit for my car. Now I don't have to stop and ask directions. Isn't that just like a man? Having a road map of where you are going is instrumental in getting to destination and that is what the mapping of the peach genome is all about according to Jim McFerson, manager of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission. MCFERSON: These sequencing of genomes, the discovery of the nature of the DNA in a crop or in an animal or in a human allows us to answer some genetic questions that we never have been able to before. What then do we do with the answers to those questions? MCFERSON: We need to apply them and let's just say for peaches, why do we often get peaches that are mealy? Some of it's how they're handled but some of it's because they genetically have a certain set of genes. With the sequence we can really discover where those genes are on chromosomes, how they work and then we can use that DNA to form our plant breeding efforts. McFerson says that while some sequencing projects have taken a great deal of time, this one went rather quickly. MCFERSON: And the cool thing is – one of them – that a peach genome, the amount of DNA in peach compared to other organisms like corn or rice or alfalfa or soy beans; it's a lot less DNA so the sequencing of that DNA has gone more quickly and the quality of the sequence information is – it's really among the best that's out there right now. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.