About

A Coordinated Development of Genetic Tools for Pecan

'A coordinated development of genetic tools for pecan’ is focused on elucidating the genetics that controls traits in pecan. The ultimate goal is to utilize the available natural genetic diversity in pecans for breeding purposes that will allow the production of trees with specific traits such as disease-resistant and salt tolerance that will ultimately allow for better production. These genetic tools developed in this project will benefit pecan growers by outlining a selection of appropriate pecan genotypes for specific regions.

The selection of pecan crop characteristics will improve by decreasing the time of pecan breeding and selecting desirable traits. These new pecan cultivars and rootstocks will improve crop characteristics by selecting the following traits: disease resistance, increase tolerance to abiotic stresses, decrease alternate bearing, and increase the nutritional value of pecans. These genotypic traits will benefit the environment as we decrease our water and pesticide use. These will be economically beneficial to growers as they will be able to produce a more stable crop with fewer inputs, processors as they will have a stable crop from year to year, and ultimately consumers as there will be a more stabilized pricing for nutritionally beneficial pecan nuts.