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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » National Clonal Germplasm Repository » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #342697
Title: Clarifying sub-genomic positions of QTLs for flowering habit and fruit quality in U.S. strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) breeding populations using pedigree-based QTL analysis

Author
item VERMA, SUJEET - University Of Florida
item Zurn, Jason
item SALINAS, NATALIA - University Of Florida
item MATHEY, MEGAN - Spring Meadow Nursery Inc
item DENOYES, BEATRICE - Institut National De La Recherche Agronomique (INRA)
item HANCOCK, JAMES - Michigan State University
item Finn, Chad
item Bassil, Nahla
item WHITAKER, VANCE - University Of Florida

Submitted to: Horticulture Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/15/2017
Publication Date: 11/8/2017
Citation: Verma, S., Zurn, J.D., Salinas, N., Mathey, M., Denoyes, B., Hancock, J., Finn, C.E., Bassil, N.V., Whitaker, V.M. 2017. Clarifying sub-genomic positions of QTLs for flowering habit and fruit quality in U.S. strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) breeding populations using pedigree-based QTL analysis. Horticulture Research. 4:17062. https://doi.org/10.1038/hortres.2017.62.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hortres.2017.62

Interpretive Summary: Strawberry varieties for commercial and home garden markets are a unique blend of physiological traits. Desired traits include fruit quality traits related to color, weight, sweetness, and acidity and for the plant to produce multiple crops throughout the growing season. To better understand the genetics underlying these traits, an analysis was conducted to identify regions in the chromosomes that may be responsible for these traits in strawberries from the USDA-ARS strawberry breeding program in Oregon and that from Michigan State University. Genomic regions of interest were identified for sweetness, acidity, and fruit weight. However these traits were found to be greatly affected by environmental conditions. A region of interest was found for the flowering trait that was stable in all environments. DNA markers associated with the flowering trait were evaluated to be used in selective breeding. These markers were found to be associated with seasonal flowering and may be useful to help develop new strawberry varieties

Technical Abstract: Strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) is consumed worldwide for its flavor and nutritional health benefits. Several quantitative trait loci (QTL) were detected in the last two decades for fruit quality and flowering traits using low-density genetic maps. Recent discoveries in allo-octoploid strawberry genomics led to the development of the IStraw90® single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array, which enabled QTL studies using high-density SNP genetic maps. In this study, breeder-specified traits were evaluated in the Eastern (Michigan) and Western (Oregon) U.S. with common sets of pedigree-linked strawberry breeding populations. Several QTLs were validated for soluble solids content (SSC), fruit weight (FWT), pH, and titratable acidity (TA) over two years in the eastern and western environments using a pedigree-based QTL analysis approach. For fruit quality, a QTL for SSC on linkage group (LG) 6A, a QTL for FWT on LG 2BII, a QTL for pH on LG 4CII, and two QTLs for TA on LGs 2A and 5B were detected. In addition, a large-effect QTL for flowering was detected and validated at the distal end of LG 4A coinciding with the FaPFRU locus in F. ×ananassa. Haplotyping of the FaPFRU identified the associated haplotypes and indicated that the homozygous recessive genotype was highly predictive of seasonal flowering. SNP probes in the FaPFRU region may be helpful for the development of DNA-based markers for marker-assisted selection for this trait