Characterization of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) cultivars and hybrid clones using SSR and AFLP markers

Simple sequence repeat (SSR) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers are commonly used in genetics and breeding studies due to their multi-allelic nature, high abundance, reproducibility, transferability over genotypes and extensive genome coverage. The genetic characterization of 44 strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) genotypes using SSR and AFLP markers is presented in the study. The genetic diversity of strawberry cultivars and hybrid clones developed mostly at the Institute of Horticulture of Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry's breeding programme was evaluated using 11 previously published SSR primer pairs and 6 AFLP primer combinations. Nine to 21 alleles per primer pair were identified in the SSR multiplex analysis. The number of differentiated genotypes varied between 12 and 38. The microsatellite primer pairs ARSFL-009, CFACT152 and EMFv104 were the most informative. The number of polymorphic fragments in the AFLP study varied between 44 and 197. The rate of polymorphism varied from 39% (primer combination EcoRI-AGG/MselCAA) to 88% (EcoRI-ACC/Msel-CAC). The results in this study demonstrated that the chosen previously published SSR primer pairs and the selected AFLP primer combinations after pre-screening procedure were suitable for the genotyping of strawberry accessions. For the cluster analysis fragments of both marker systems were used to get a more comprehensive description of the genetic relationships of the evaluated strawberry accessions. The cluster analysis revealed two main groups consisting of 10 and 34 strawberry cultivars and clones, respectively.