New developments in raspberry breeding in Scotland

The deployment of marker-assisted selection in raspberry,. using PCH-based markers for. resistance to Phytophthora. root rot, is now a routine part of the selection process within the raspberry breeding programme at the James Hutton Institute. As a result, two productive genotypes combining resistance to root rot with. high fruit quality are currently. in commercial trials for further evaluation and potential release. Markers for fruit quality traits are also in the process of validation and further work is in progress to develop similar approaches for other resistance and agronomic traits. The development of markers for important traits enables the breeder to more rapidly identify the best Parents to use for particular traits, and the resulting seedlings can also be screened for specific characteristics at a much earlier stage than in the past.