Mapping gene H controlling cane pubescence in raspberry and its association with resistance to cane botrytis and spur blight, rust and cane spot.

Disease resistance is increasing in importance, as consumers require high-quality raspberry fruit at a time when chemical disease control is undesirable. Breeders have limited resources and rarely include a primary screen for each fungal disease. Marker-assisted breeding would facilitate the introduction of resistance into elite germplasm and breeding lines. An additional 20 simple sequence repeats have been added to the existing raspberry linkage map. Gene H, which determines cane pubescence (genotype HH or Hh), the recessive allele of which gives glabrous canes (genotype hh), has been mapped on to linkage group 2 and shown to be closely associated with resistance to cane botrytis and spur blight but not rust or cane spot. Other map regions on linkage groups 3, 5 and 6 associated with disease resistance are reported here.