Transcriptome analysis on the white pine-blister rust interactions

The invasive fungus Cronartium ribicola causes white pine blister rust (WPBR), the most destructive disease affecting native five-needle pines in North America. Phenotype-based selection of genetic resistance currently used in conifer breeding programs is a long-term, high cost process. Genotype-based or genomic selection would provide a more effective breeding strategy. This project uses a combed approach of RNA-Seq analysis and high-throughput SNP genotyping technologies to discover functional SNP markers for breeding selection of a desirable trait without phenotyping in western white pine, limber pine, whitebark pine, and other five-needle pines.