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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » National Clonal Germplasm Repository » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #138787
Title: GENETIC STABILITY OF STRAWBERRIES IN CULTURE

Author
item Reed, Barbara
item Hummer, Kim

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/2002
Publication Date: 4/1/2002
Citation: REED, B.M., HUMMER, K.E. GENETIC STABILITY OF STRAWBERRIES IN CULTURE. BOOK CHAPTER. 2002.

Interpretive Summary: The national strawberry gene collection is assigned to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Clonal Germplasm Repository at Corvallis, Oregon. This collection is preserved primarily as potted plants in a screenhouse and about 250 clones are kept as tissue cultured plantlets. The strawberries are available for distribution to international requestors, from the primary screenhouse plants, besides constituting the back-up. Standard tissue culture procedures involve storage of strawberry plantlets in semi-permeable plastic tissue culture bags in refrigeration. These plants remain viable for several years in these conditions. We performed experiments to determine if cold storage or chemicals caused changes or mutations in strawberries. No differences were detected based on analysis of DNA or in observation of specivic traits. Our procedures produced new plants from young tissues and stable genotypes and avoids tissues prone to mutational changes. We have not observed different mutation rates in culture in comparison with whole plants. We recognized that the potential for mislabeling exists and tissue culture systems should include identity verification as a final step.

Technical Abstract: The national strawberry (Fragaria L.) genetic resource collection is assigned to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Clonal Germplasm Repository at Corvallis, Oregon. This collection is preserved primarily as potted plants in a screenhouse and about 250 clones are kept as in vitro cultured plantlets. The in vitro plantlets are available for distribution to international requestors, from the primary screenhouse plants, besides constituting the back-up. Standard in vitro procedures involve storage of strawberry plantlets in semi-permeable plastic tissue culture bags on a hormone-free storage medium at 4oC. These plants remain viable for several years in these conditions. We performed experiments to determine if cold storage or higher benzyl adenine concentrations caused somaclonal variation in strawberries. No differences were detected based on randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers or in observation of specific morphological traits. Our procedures regenerate plants from young tissues and stable genotypes and avoids callus and protoplasts proliferation. We have not observed different mutation rates in culture in comparison with in vivo. We recognized that the potential for mislabeling exists and in vitro propagation systems should include identity verification as a final step.