PAG-II Plant Genome II Conference

Town & Country Conference Center, San Diego, CA, January, 1994.


PG-II: MAPPING THE STRAWBERRY GENOME

MAPPING THE STRAWBERRY GENOME

Thomas M. Davis and Hongrun Yu. Department of Plant Biology,, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824.


Genetic analysis of the commercially cultivated strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa, has been hampered by its octoploid (2n=8x=56) genomic structure. To circumvent this difficulty, we are using closely related diploid species (primarily F. vesca and F. viridis) as a "model system" for strawberry genome mapping. With the aim of defining the seven basic strawberry linkage groups, we have collected segregation data on RAPD'S, isozymes, and morphological markers from segregating progenies resulting from crosses between an interspecific (vesca x viridis) hybrid and two F.vesca 'Alpine' cultivars, 'Baron Solemacher' and 'Yellow Wonder'. All but one of 80 segregating markers have been assigned to four linkage groups. This deficiency (seven groups were expected) suggests the existence of translocation heterozygosity in the interspecific hybrid parent, an unexpected result based on published cytological evidence that F. vesca and F. viridis share a common (AA) genomic constitution. Despite this complication, we have used advanced generations to identify and confirm RAPD and isozyme tags for genes of economic interest, including fruit color and runner formation, and have detected apparent single gene segregation for resistance to red stele root rot, an important fungal disease. The feasibility of detecting codominant RAPD markers, and of comparing RAPD markers and RAPD-based linkage groups among Fragaria species at different ploidy levels is being investigated by marker cloning and Southern analysis. RAPD bands that are polymorphic among diploid accessions are seldom detectable at higher (6x,8x) ploidy levels, but some monomorphic bands are detectable across-all ploidy levels. Results indicate that RAPD markers can useful for phylogenetic analysis at the diploid level, but less so across ploidy levels, in Fragaria.


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