Since Michigan is the nation's leading producer of tart cherries, Michigan State University researchers were searching for the genes associated with tart cherry trees that bloom later in the season to meet the needs of a changing climate. They started by comparing DNA sequences from late-blooming tart cherry trees to the sequenced genome of a related species, the peach. However, in a surprise to the researchers, the genetic discrepancies between the species outweighed the similarities. This led the team to create the first annotated Montmorency tart cherry genome and identify the DNA segments that code for each gene.
