Biological significance and gene expression in blueberry under conditions of twice harvesting and continuous harvesting

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25660021
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Horticultural science
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
• Principal Investigator: OGIWARA Isao 東京農工大学, (連合)農学研究科(研究院), 教授 (80204113)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YAMADA Tetsuya 東京農工大学, 大学院農学研究院, 准教授 (20422511)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: ブルーべリー / 開花生理 / 連続開花 / 二季成り / 四季成り / 環境制御 / 遺伝子 / 日長

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In Japan,the harvesting period of blueberries grown under natural conditions is from June to September. From the attempts of off-season production and continuous harvesting of some cultivars of southern highbush blueberries (SHB), results showed that it was possible to produce off-season fruits in a controlled environment. Therefore SHB that was treated with high temperatures and long-day lengths in September flowered on terminal bud in October. Flower bud differentiation was stimulated by low temperatures and short-day lengths after terminal bud flowering. Therefore, it is possible to harvest fruits continuously from December to July by subsequent flowering from the mother branch. RNA-Seq revealed that several genes showing high homology with flowering-related genes of Arabidopsis expressed in the new leaves of blueberry under the cultivation conditions of continuous harvesting. This observation suggests that blueberry have several flowering pathways as is the case of Arabidopsis.

Free Research Field

園芸学