Application of genomics in raspberry variety development

Currently there is great scope for increasing soft fruit production in the UK to meet demand from consumers and processors. Soft fruit is a success story for the UK being a valuable and sustainable horticulture industry with the associated broader health benefits derived from consumption. Currently however no high quality varieties with resistance to pests and diseases are available. Breeding soft fruit crops is time consuming and can be 15 years in variety development. Breeding tools in the form of markers have recently been developed on a case by case basis and individually introduced into breeding programmes. What is now required are markers for multiple complex traits to be identified and utilised in the development of a high throughput format that would lead to significant advances in variety development in terms of time and accuracy in selection meeting stakeholder requirements.