The control of prickle formation in <i>Rubus</i>.

ABSTRACT: Prickles on blackberry and raspberry canes make pruning, harvesting, and handling more difficult and can increase labor costs for growers. The trait has been challenging to improve in these clonal crops because it is recessive and linked to undesirable agronomic traits. In blackberry and red raspberry, breeding programs have used recessive mutants at the S locus to generate prickleless cultivars for the last century. In this study, we identified independent loss-of-function mutations in a WUSCHEL-LIKE HOMEOBOX transcription factor, WOX1, as the genetic basis of the prickleless S locus in both blackberry and red raspberry. We mapped the S locus using integrated genome-wide association, bulked segregant analysis, and identity-by-descent analyses informed by breedi

SUBMITTER: St Aubin B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12776125 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature