Yes, but in this case it is a simple probe for a single gene. Accuracy is very high. My tests were done at Justus Liebig university in Germany. Since then, IQGenetics has started performing oocyanin tests in the U.S.
KSP, search for Cackle Fruit to find a few pictures of my chickens. They look like Silver Laced Wyandottes but lay blue eggs. When I get them stable, I will arrange for them to be sold commercially.
I agree.
I agree. there are so many great crab apples. just because they are smaller doesnt mean they cant be better. i put in 5 this spring and many grafted Clarks crab.
We have always called eggs “cackle berries” in the UK.
A while back on the Adams Apples blog, he made a post about apple genetic testing Dr. Cameron Pearce, a prof out of Washington State is doing it for just over a hundred bucks. The post also included a video lecture from him that was fascinating. I feel like it could answer a lot of apple lineage quesions. How many unique golden russets are there, do the limbertwigs all share a common ancestor, how many varities are circulating under multiple names, etc. I hope at some point they publish an apple family tree.
Unfortunately his work suffers from two errors that are systemic in horticultural genomics:
The paper you linked two outlines types of mathematical errors that can occur in genomic analyses, but doesnt address any specific areas of Dr. Peace’s work where such errors exist. Can you please help point us in that direction?
@MDL17576
As mentioned in the Abstract of my 2022 paper, the listed errors have been present in the horticultural genomics literature and textbooks for several decades. As such, I hold Dr. Pearce harmless for using them.
Dr. Pearce historically used an impressive array of SNP markers as a basis for comparisons between apple cultivars and more recently non-static sets of genetic samples termed GBS. In of themselves these can be valid collection methods with computable confidence intervals.
The methods of analysis employed by the software in use by Dr. Pearce contains the following issues at a minimum, listed in Frost 2022:
1.3, 1.5, 1.8.
I also suspect but have not verified that the GBS methodology misuses profile enrichment, section 1.6.
Again, I think Dr. Pearce’s work is well-intentioned – as are the efforts of many other horticulture genomics researchers. But currently this discipline is going through its Michelson–Morley moment.
I enjoyed trying to read your paper.
The abstract was great 
Only herbicides … insecticides and fungicides aren’t targets for treatment resistance traits.
I’ve seen them produce well, though I’ve been unimpressed by the yields on mine. Mine get plenty of neglect, though, and the good producing bushes were grown in rich soil and well mulched.
Also may be an issue of variety. There are several different jostas as I understand it. Some may be better producers.
Pear breeders such as Jean-Baptiste Van Mons knew things even modern breeders refuse to admit. Genetic testing is very good but observation is more important. Anyone who cannot apply what they observe misses the oppurtunity. Van Mons intentionally harvested immature seed knowing the mutations would be greatly increased. Perhaps it made no difference but his belief that it did caused him to plant a great many pears. We can now genetically test his creations and reproduce his steps. We still have been unable to replace his greatest accomplishments. His pears to this day are still in the store. Hard to believe modern science cannot reproduce the results achieved in 1700s.
" Jean-Baptiste Van Mons
November 11, 1765
Today is the birthday of the Belgian physicist, chemist, botanist, horticulturist, and pomologist, Jean-Baptiste Van Mons.
The name of the game for Jean-Baptiste was selective breeding for pears. Selective breeding happens when humans breed plants to develop particular characteristics by choosing the parent plants to make the offspring.
Check out the patience and endurance that was required as Jean-Baptiste Van Mon’s described his work:
“I have found this art to consist in regenerating in a direct line of descent,
and as rapidly as possible an improving variety,
taking care that there be no interval between the generations.To sow, to re-sow, to sow again, to sow perpetually,
in short, to do nothing but sow,
is the practice to be pursued, and which cannot be departed from;
and this is the whole secret of the art I have employed.”
Jean-Baptiste Van Mons produced a tremendous amount of new pear cultivars in his breeding program - something north of forty incredible species throughout his lifetime. The Bosc and D’Anjou pears we know today are his legacies."
No we can’t – at least not yet. That’s just wishful thinking on the part of some horticulturists.
Thought the testing was good enough to do that. Had watched a documentary that said we were at that level a couple of years ago.
@clarkinks
If you attended high school 150 years ago you would likely believe that outer space is filled with luminiferous aether, something disproved by the Michelson-Morley experiment.
Seems like it would be easy enough to experimentally test how accurate the genomic testimg is. An apple breeding program has good records of the identity of individuals and how they are related. They could send some samples to Univ of Washington for sequencing. If U of W’s results match what was sent, their test is good enough.
That kind of test does not involve sequencing.
Also notice that I have not criticized the laboratory test, but instead the analysis of the data.
You mean Dr. Pearce’s lab. There are other testing programs at UW.
There are discrepancies with existing records.
I skimmed the first link, and I have to say I don’t put much faith in this paper being right. The author is making extremely broad claims that would invalidate or call into question decades of work from some of the top geneticists in the world and also argues there are issues with certain widely used mathematical analysis platforms–platforms that built the modern world and have been used for hundreds of thousands of papers at the very least.
Bold claims, especially for a paper with no citations, no coauthor, numerous typos, and no institutional affiliation, published in a no name journal that wasn’t even listed in Scopus until recently.
Could be true, but big claims require big evidence and credibility, and I’m just not seeing that.
Richard is the author.