Genetic testing has revealed that the blush cherry Napoleon Bigarreau (Napoleon for short) is the father of the Bing cherry. Black Republican, a red cherry, was known to be the mother variety, but the other parent (the source of the pollen) was unknown until now. Dr. Amy Iezzoni, cherry breeder at Michigan State University, and Dr. Umesh Rosyara, RosBREED statistician, used genetic data generated by the RosBREED project to discover Bing’s paternity. They have been studying the genomes of cherry varieties to help them identify potential parents for new crosses and develop genetic markers to improve the chances of developing […]