LINKAGE RELATIONSHIP AMONG ANTHOCYANIN BIOSYNTHESIS GENES AND THE C GENE FOR YELLOW FRUIT COLOR IN Fragaria vesca (DIPLOID STRAWBERRY)

Plant Biology, Department University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824 USA

Based upon heterologous gene sequences from the NCBI GenBank, degenerate primer pairs were designed with which we successfully amplified, then cloned and sequenced an intron-containing fragment for each of several anthocyanin biosynthesis genes from the diploid strawberry, Fragaria vesca. Based upon clone sequences, strawberry-specific primers were designed for each gene and used to detect intron length polymorphisms between one or more pairs of parents of various diploid mapping populations. With these intron length polymorphisms as markers, we mapped anthocyanin biosynthesis genes and one regulatory gene of this pathway in two mapping populations. The mapping results show that one of biosynthesis pathway genes is linked without recombination with the c gene which governs yellow versus red fruit color in F. vesca, while the other genes are located in other linkage groups. The wild type allele of the candidate gene for the c locus will be isolated and used to do complementation experiments in order to confirm its function in determining strawberry fruit color.