ASHS 2024 Conference

Blueberry (Vaccinium sect. Cyanococcus Rydb.), lingonberry (V. vitis-idaea L.) and huckleberry (V. membranaceum; also called black huckleberry or black blueberry) are three important Vaccinium small fruit crops native to the North. They are valuable resources for bioactive components that play important roles in anti-oxidant, anti-tumor, anti-ulcer, and anti-inflammatory activities. They can be propagated to produce true-to-type plants either conventionally or by micropropagation. Propagation in vitro is now well accepted worldwide for commercial production of Vaccinium crops. Proficient plant propagation technique using shoot organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis was successfully established in blueberry and lingonberry. Shoot regeneration and proliferation in in-vitro conditions using various liquid bioreactors have successfully been achieved in various Vaccinium species. One of the major concerns in commercial production is the occurrence of variation in micropropagated plants. This presentation describes the in-depth progress of genetic and epigenetic variations in different Vaccinium species during micropropagation. It addresses different molecular techniques used to monitor true-to-type and epigenetics along with application of epigenetic variation in micropropagated Vaccinium berry crops. Keywords: blueberry, bioreactor micropropagation, DNA-methylation, huckleberry, molecular markers, lingonberry, somaclonal variation