fruit
By Sylvia Kantor, College of Agricultural, Human & Natural Resource Sciences
PULLMAN, Wash. – Scientists at Washington State University have been awarded $2.53 million to improve fruit quality and disease resistance of crops in the rosaceae family (apple, blackberry, peach, pear, rose, strawberry, sweet cherry and tart cherry).
A microphoto of a phytochemical, courtesy of WSU
Extension.
PULLMAN – Research on the benefits of phytochemicals in apples and raspberries will expand to include other major Washington crops, continuing a project that a WSU scientist began last year.
Bernd M. Lange, assistant professor in WSU’s Institute of Biological Chemistry, spearheaded the research project, beginning in the fall of 2007, with the goal of developing a high-throughput analytical method of measuring levels of health-related phytochemicals in crops.
“Phytochemicals, in general, are active chemicals in plants that can be of nutritional value,” Lange said. … » More …
Improved apples, peaches, pears and cherries at market sooner. This is one benefit of research by WSU bioinformaticist Dorrie Main.Piece by piece, Main, an associate professor of horticulture and a scientist in the WSU Agricultural Research Center, is mapping the DNA mosaic of the rosaceous family. The family includes Washington’s largest crop–apples–and other tree fruit as well as cherries, peaches, berries and nuts. One result of her work is a shortening of the time between breeding-improved tree fruit varieties and actually planting them for production.Main focuses on genes connected primarily to fruit quality– sugar and acid levels, color, firmness and fruit size as well as … » More …