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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » National Clonal Germplasm Repository » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #338567
Title: Validation of molecular markers associated with perpetual flowering in octoploid Fragaria germplasm

Author
item SALINAS, NATALIA - Oregon State University
item Zurn, Jason
item MATHEY, MEGAN - Spring Meadow Nursery Inc
item MOOKERJEE, SONALI - Michigan State University
item DENOYES, BEATRICE - Institut National De La Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
item PERROTTE, JUSTINE - Institut National De La Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
item POTTIER, ALINE - Ciref-Centre Inter Regional De Recherche Et D'Experimentation De La Fraise
item Finn, Chad
item HANCOCK, JAMES - Michigan State University
item STEWART, PHILIP - Driscoll'S
item Bassil, Nahla

Submitted to: Molecular Breeding
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/13/2017
Publication Date: 5/11/2017
Citation: Salinas, N.R., Zurn, J.D., Mathey, M., Mookerjee, S., Denoyes, B., Perrotte, J., Pottier, A., Finn, C.E., Hancock, J.F., Stewart, P., Bassil, N.V. 2017. Validation of molecular markers associated with perpetual flowering in octoploid Fragaria germplasm. Molecular Breeding. 37:70. doi: 10.1007/s11032-017-0672-2.

Interpretive Summary: Perpetually flowering strawberries have great economic value to the commercial and home garden markets. A wild Virginia strawberry has been used as a genetic source for the perpetually flowering trait in many strawberry varieties. Three studies have proposed DNA tests which can predict this trait in the strawberries. We evaluated these tests to determine which performed the best and then used the best test to identify strawberries which likely have the perpetually flowering trait from the Virginia strawberry source.

Technical Abstract: Perpetual flowering (PF) is a highly desirable trait within cultivated strawberries (Fragaria ×ananassa) for the commercial and home garden markets. The most widely used source of the PF trait was originally introgressed from a wild Fragaria virginiana subsp. glauca accession collected in the Wasatch Mountains near Salt Lake City, UT in 1955. This source is conferred by a single dominant QTL, FaPFRU, and was recently identified in multiple bi-parental populations. Multiple markers have been proposed as diagnostic tests for marker assisted selection (MAS). These markers were often only proposed after looking at a relatively small sample of germplasm. To identify the best diagnostic testing procedure for MAS, the markers were evaluated individually and in combination on a training set of cultivars with known genotypes and the best test was used to determine the distribution of the FaPFRU source of PF within a large sample of octoploid Fragaria germplasm. Of the tests evaluated, the microsatellite marker Bx215 alone was found to have the best diagnostic ability for MAS and the accuracy of the test was 93.1 % in controlled conditions. When utilizing the test on 359 F. ×ananassa accessions, 103 accessions were identified to likely have the FaPFRU locus. Nine octoploid Fragaria accessions were PF and did not have this marker indicating possible recombination events or potentially novel sources of the PF trait. Future work will be needed to dissect the PF trait in these nine individuals.