1. Please state project objectives and what work was done this quarter to address them:
Objective 1: Screen breeding populations for new individuals with exceptional HLB tolerance and fruit quality as populations mature and begin to fruit.
More data has been collected for the late season and data from the previous quarter has been analyzed, including fruit and juice blends derived from these materials. More tolerant material has been sampled. The late season oranges and orange-like accessions were sampled during the late season. Accessions that were treated with two years of OTC were compared versus those with one injection. New breeding material has been planted for long term evaluation and previously planted selections are being followed for fruiting and quality.
Objective 2: Plant new and manage ongoing Stage 2 semi-commercial trials of the selections most likely to succeed in the HLB environment versus commercial standard controls.
One Stage II with sweet orange is ongoing and this trial about 2 years old and is not fruiting yet, but the trees are growing off well and we anticipate the first fruit of that trial coming in next season. The two trials that were ready to plant have been planted. Data will be collected from these ongoing trials and they are being closely watched and well-maintained on CREC property. Also, we have reserved several acres for a large Stage II trial at CREC, which is a collaborative effort with the Coca Cola Company. We are planning to plant these trials are three locations (Citra, CREC and Ft. Pierce).
Objective 3: Utilize bioinformatic tools to identify genes or other variants involved in HLB tolerance and possible resistance for plant transformation and conventional breeding.
We have received the genomic, Hi-C, and transcriptomic data for assembly and annotation of the Hamlin 1-4-1 genome so that it can be compared to Hamlin N13-32 to look for genes and other variants associated with HLB tolerance. We have had our first official meeting with the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab scientist that will work with this group on identifying genes and other variants for HLB tolerance. We have identified the many of the founders of the USDA and IFAS citrus breeding program and these founders will be deep sequenced to assemble, phase and annotate them so that these can be used to look for alleles that are associated with HLB tolerance among the 100 genotyped accessions.
2. Please state what work is anticipated for next quarter:
We plan on deep sequencing, annotating, and phasing the founders and short read sequencing the 100 selections from USDA and IFAS breeding programs. We anticipate prepping the land for the three stage II trials with the Coca Cola Company and we plan on following ongoing trials to phenotype advanced selections to compare versus the standard controls. We plan to have meetings with the scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to discuss data and research activities.
3. Please state budget status (underspend or overspend, and why):
We are underspent because we are waiting for the next round of paperwork from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The paperwork that they sent was for only one year and we needed to make sure that the paperwork is correct before signing. We have requested a multiple year project agreement with an accurate scope of work.