A team of researchers from the group of Genetic Improvement and Biotechnology of Strawberry from the Andalusian Institute for Research and Training in Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Organic Production (Ifapa) In Malaga, specific regions of the strawberry genome have been identified to improve its firmness, which has allowed the development of a molecular marker that can be used to select more efficiently strawberry varieties that are 50% firmer.

The group of researchers from Ifapa.

Specifically, this study has analyzed 124 different strawberry accessions from the Fragaria Germplasm Bank located at the Ifapa centre in Malaga. This is a research project in which 26 agronomic and quality characteristics of the fruit have been evaluated, such as size, firmness, sugar content and vitamin C.

The results of the work have shown how genetic improvement has benefited aspects such as the size and firmness of the fruit, although this has had a negative impact on other characteristics important such as sugar content or vitamin C.

In addition, specific regions of the strawberry genome have been identified that are related to key traits, including a region on chromosome 6A that affects the firmness of the fruit.

In this sense, researchers at Ifapa have discovered that this effect is related to the expression of a gene called FaPG1, which regulates this firmness. From this finding, they have been able to develop a molecular marker with the potential to select more efficiently firmer strawberry varietiess.

The creation of new varieties of strawberries is a long and complex process, since numerous characteristics related to both their cultivation and their use must be improved. with the quality of the fruit. However, advances in genetics make it possible to use tools such as DNA markers to identify specific traits and accelerate the development of new improved varieties, leaving behind traditional methods based only on direct observation of plants.

The results of this study, a work co-financed by the State Research Agency, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and with European FEDER funds, have been published in the article “Genome-wide association studies in a diverse strawberry collection unveil loci controlling agronomic and fruit quality traits” in the December issue of the scientific journal “The Plant Genome”.