The carrot SCRI project taps into carrot diversity to develop genetic and genomic resources, evaluate nutrient bioavailability, and assess factors influencing grower and consumer decisions

With vegetable consumption in the US significantly lower than that recommended by nutritionists, and growers facing increasing production challenges, a survey of carrot stakeholders was conducted to develop a plan for addressing these challenges as they pertain to carrot. The survey revealed that the carrot industry needs breeding stocks and genomic tools to develop carrots with improved field performance, including disease and pest resistance and abiotic stress tolerance, to meet growing market demands; and improved flavor and nutritional quality to better meet consumer needs. To address these needs, the carrot Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI) Project was proposed and funded by the USDA-NIFA. We have screened the national germplasm collection of around 700 diverse cultivated carrot accessions and identified new sources of traits for improving carrot productivity and quality, expanding product development, and strengthening economic viability. Improved cultivars with these traits will provide a cost-effective, environmentally favorable means to deliver an improved carrot crop to growers, processors, and consumers. However, carrot breeders need tools to track genes for improving the crop, and will need tested breeding stocks to develop superior cultivars more efficiently. The goals of this project are to: 1) develop cost-effective genomic tools to advance carrot breeding populations with the economically and nutritionally significant traits identified by stakeholders; 2) map genes underlying economically important traits so breeders can effectively deploy these traits in cultivars for growers, processors, and consumers; 3) evaluate bioavailability of nutrients in carrots with varying nutrient composition that may influence nutritional impact; and 4) evaluate the market value and impact of carrot traits on grower and consumer decisions.