Professor Alan Smith

These researchers will identify sources of expert-identified American, European highbush cranberry, and other close relatives to sample. The sources will include arboreta collections, herbaria samples, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Germplasm Resources Information Network. Expert-identified American highbush cranberry and its close relatives are key to identifying distinguishing DNA sequences and developing a genetic test.

This research team has experience collecting and extracting DNA from fresh and preserved herbarium plant tissue that was used for unique sequence identification. They have used similar technology with several diverse species. The genomic DNA analysis will identify sequences that are consistent among all American highbush cranberry plants and different from all other relatives.

This project uses polymerase chain reaction, a test that is very specific and sensitive and that will use the unique DNA sequences to design a reaction that amplifies specific DNA from only American highbush cranberry. The expert-identified highbush cranberries will be used to validate the test to show that a positive signal is only detected from American highbush cranberry.