June 2021 - 15

Rubus - has long been a passion of
Fernandez's. Her Ph.D. dissertation
focused on the heat tolerance of
raspberries. (It's low, which is why it's
challenging to grow raspberries in North
Carolina, though she continues to work
to change that.)
" Caneberries are cool. I just love
the fruit, " she said. " I love the growth
habit. They have this biennial growth
habit, where they have a first year cane
and a second year cane, and you can
manipulate it to fruit at different times.
It's a unique growing system. "
Examples of fruit Fernandez's team has
developed include the 'Von' blackberry,
which is a berry that ripens late in the
season with good yields that meets the
needs for growers in Western North
Carolina. The 'Nantahala' raspberry -
which in 2009 was the first red raspberry
released from NC State's breeding
program in 50 years - also grows well
in the cooler weather of the mountains,
though for a North Carolina grower, it
couldn't compete commercially against
California's berries.
However, the 'Nantahala' raspberry
found a second life with home growers.
Commercial nurseries like Gurney's have
helped the plant find its niche, and it
sells out every year.
" And especially now with COVID-19,
people want to grow things in their
backyard, so I think it's going to be even
more popular, " Fernandez said.
This career is one she never anticipated
as a college student interested in science.
She knew she liked plants, and she
liked being outside, but growing up in
rural Wisconsin, her main association
with agriculture was dairy farming.
Exploring various plant-related options
as a master's student, she shadowed a
professor collecting data in an apple
orchard. That experience opened up a
whole new world - one that balanced
agriculture and horticulture with lab
research and field work.
" It was a beautiful day to be
conducting research in the orchard.
The sun was out, the birds were singing.
I thought, sign me up! This is great, "
Fernandez said.
She once shared that story while
speaking to students on a panel with
Bryce Lane, retired NC State professor
and former host of UNC-TV's " In the
Garden with Bryce Lane. "
" I told the students, 'I don't know how
I got here, but I can tell you that there
are things that happened that put me
on this path. Bryce said it was exactly
what students need - to listen to the little
nudges you get along the way, " she said.
" I feel very, very lucky to have landed
here at NC State. "
Now, as a distinguished professor,
Fernandez is in a position to bring her
skills and knowledge full circle, providing
those same nudges to students by hiring
them for undergraduate research positions.
Resources from the Leazer professorship
make it possible to give them hands-on
experience with plant breeding, such as
making crosses - transferring pollen from
the male plant anther and applying it to the
female stigma.
She has also been able to hire an
undergraduate student to assist with
important projects that wouldn't
necessarily be fundable by grants,
like preserving core germplasm from
different strawberry varieties in tissue
cultures. The germplasm is the collection
of genetically distinct plants Fernandez
has used to breed from, for example
using plants with traits for disease
resistance and crossing them with plants
that have large fruit. The project creates a
library of sorts, which allows Fernandez
to preserve different berry genetics for
breeding projects at any time, without
having to worry about losing valuable
plants in the field.
Being able to offer these experiences
- as well as show what's possible in this
career field as a distinguished professor
- is particularly important to Fernandez
as a woman of Hispanic descent in
academia who was a first-generation
college and graduate student. While
she hasn't set out specifically to mentor
women students, she finds that many do
come work with her.
" It's fun to give them these
opportunities and show them that they
can do these things too, " Fernandez said.
While not all of her students will
become plant breeders, they enjoy their
time with the program and being part of
a collaborative group - Team Rubus, as
they call themselves.
The team will continue its work
throughout the spring and summer as
they test and taste. And though they
might have their fill of that bottom
percentage of fruit by the end of the
season, Fernandez and her students
will be ready to experience the diversity
of North Carolina berries again next
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FGN | JUNE 2021 | 15
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June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2021
