Vaccinium oxycoccos fruit epicuticular wax

Epicuticular wax functions as a barrier to various environmental stress in other fruit crops and may be a promising plant feature to enhance to mitigate sunscald in cranberry. In this study we assessed the function of epicuticular wax in cranberries to attenuate stresses associated with sunscald by subjecting high and low epicuticular wax cranberries to controlled desiccation and light/heat exposure. A cranberry population that segregates for epicuticular wax was phenotyped for epicuticular fruit wax levels and genotyped using GBS. Quantitative trait loci analyses of these data identified a QTL associated with epicuticular wax phenotype. A SNP marker was developed in the QTL regions for marker assisted selection.