Toyota and NARO raise efficiency of strawberry variety improvement
Strawberries are a horticultural product with one of the largest markets in Japan. Its domestic production is concentrated from December to May the following year, and almost all demand during the off-season period between July and October is met through imported products. As a result, it is necessary to develop appealing varieties that are highly disease resistant, can be produced in Japan during the off-season period, and can be delivered easily. The strawberry genome structure, however, is complex and it is difficult to analyze its genetic information. This has impeded progress in variety improvement through the use of DNA markers.
Despite these circumstances, Toyota and NARO have successfully developed the technology for analyzing strawberry genetic data with a high degree of precision using DNA microarray technology developed independently by Toyota. Both organizations have successfully developed DNA markers that can be used to select individual plants that are resistant to the main strawberry diseases (powdery mildew and anthracnose) as well as to select plants that are everbearing. Selective breeding of strawberries is performed by crossbreeding two different varieties that have favorable traits, then breeding thousands of the offspring from the seeds obtained, and narrowing down the best outcomes in stages.
By using the newly-developed DNA markers in selective breeding of strawberries, it will be possible to identify the offspring that have the necessary genes by performing a simple DNA test, which will greatly reduce the number of candidates during the initial evaluation stage. This will halve the time necessary to select disease resistant and everbearing properties, and to reduce cultivation area by two-thirds, therefore contributing to higher efficiency in strawberry variety improvement.
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