A period of dormancy in winter is necessary for many perennial crops. However, the genetics and mechanisms underlying the process are not fully understood. We have developed a statistical methodology contrasting a conventional raspberry variety with one which fails to go dormant in winter to disentangle dormancy related mechanisms from those related to other seasonal changes. This has helped to identify a gene, common to many plant species, with a mutation associated with the failure to go dormant in winter.

Winter dormancy is essential for many perennial crops to avoid frost damage, subsequently support vigorous spring growth, and to produce good yields. The changing climate is undermining dormancy in many plants and causing economic losses in agriculture. One solution is the development of climate-resilient crop varieties, and for this a better understanding of the mechanisms and genetics underlying dormancy is necessary. 

Working with scientists at JHI, BioSS staff have developed methodology contrasting a conventional raspberry variety with one which fails to go dormant in winter to disentangle dormancy related mechanisms from those related to other seasonal changes. RNA data from the Glen Ample variety, which exhibits conventional winter dormancy behaviour, was used to identify clusters of conventional gene expression profiles over the course of a winter. The expression profiles of these genes in Glen Dee, which has aberrant dormancy behaviour, were mapped on to the Glen Ample clusters. Any genes exhibiting different expression profiles over the period relevant to dormancy induction were identified as candidates for critical involvement with winter dormancy in raspberry. This process identified a gene similar to VRN1, a gene associated with dormancy in some other plants, which did not express in Glen Dee; and genetic analysis revealed the cause to be mutations in the regulatory region of the gene which silence its expression. The same process has been used to identify lipids with potential for use as indicators of dormancy in the field, considerably reducing the time required to complete dormancy-related experiments and increasing the chance of successful outcomes.

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This work was done in collaboration with Julie Graham, Rob Hancock and Nikki Jennings at The James Hutton Institute and was funded under the Underpinning National Capacity element of the Scottish Government's Strategic Research Programme for environment, agriculture and food.