Breeding barriers between the cultivated strawberry, Fragaria × ananassa, and related wild germplasm

Five-hundred interspecific and intergeneric crosses were performed among accessions of the wild strawberries Fragaria vesca(2x), Duchesnea indica (8x), Potentilla tucumanensis (2x) and 9 genotypes of the cultivated strawberry, Fragaria×ananassa (8x), following an incomplete diallele mating design. Crosses between D. indica and F.×ananassa produced many putative hybrids when D. indica was used as female but a few achenes and plants when used as male; therefore, pollen-pistil compatibility relations were analyzed by fluorescence microscopy in this direction of the cross. Of the genotypic combinations, 78.6% were incompatible at the stigma level and 17.2% at the first third of the style. Only 3.6% were pollen-pistil compatible and produced fruits with achenes (seven did not germinate or originated short-lived plants and nine produced normal plants). F.vesca×F.×ananassa crosses produced 35 hybrid achenes but only 14% germinated, yielding short-lived plants; histological analyses revealed that inviable seeds had less developed (or collapsed) endosperms and smaller embryos than control plump F. vesca seeds. P.tucumanensis was only used as male, with negative results. These species and genera are partially isolated by a complex system of pre- and post-zygotic barriers. Knowledge of their nature would allow the breeder to devise strategies to put the genetic variability available in the group into a useful form.