Page 33 - Green knowledge 2025

Photo: Silje Kvist Simonsen
Hunting for genetic variation in strawberry
In modern times, strawberry breeding has focused primarily on yield and appearance.
Important traits such as disease resistance have been given lower priority. Researchers are
now investigating how these traits can be efficiently reintroduced.
Developing strawberry varieties with new traits is a
time-consuming process. In traditional breeding,
two different strawberry varieties are crossed, pro-
ducing hundreds of offspring. These offspring are
genetically different, containing a mix of genes from
both parent plants. To determine which traits the
offspring have, they must be grown and evaluated.
Only the offspring with the greatest potential are
selected for further breeding. This is a lengthy pro-
cess, taking at least 10 years before a new strawberry
variety with the desired traits reaches the market.
Dr Jakob Junkers has investigated whether this time
can be reduced using molecular methods.
In the project, Dr Junkers studied resistance to pow-
dery mildew in different strawberry varieties and
linked it to genetic markers in the plants’ DNA. He
identified specific regions of DNA associated with
powdery mildew resistance. This information was
used to create a model that can predict disease
resistance based on DNA markers. As a result, it is
possible to quickly analyse offspring from many
crosses and select the most promising plants for fur-
ther breeding, potentially reducing breeding time by
2–3 years.
Dr Junkers’ work showed that there is considerable
genetic variation in current strawberry varieties.
“This means we have the foundation to breed straw-
berries that are resistant to powdery mildew, allow-
ing cultivation with reduced use of pesticides.”
Combining a faster breeding process with the exist-
ing genetic variation provides opportunities to
develop a wide diversity of strawberries, in terms of
disease resistance, colour and flavour.
Purpose: Funding: Contact: Use molecular methods to reduce the time required to breed new strawberry varieties with disease
resistance.
Part of the BreedingValue project
–
EU Horizon 2020 programme for research and innovation
Research Professor May Bente Brurberg, Division of Biotechnology and Plant Health.
Email: may.brurberg@nibio.no | Telephone: +47 926 09 364.
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