A Study on the Morphology and Molecular Biology of Tropical Strawberries

Abstract

The studies on the morpho-molecular characteristics of different strawberry genotypes were conducted at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Gazipur, Bangladesh. BARI Strawberry 1, BARI Strawberry 2, BARI Strawberry 3, FA 005, and Festival were used for this experiment. This study was undertaken to assess five tropical strawberry genotypes at morphological and molecular level. BARI Strawberry 2 was recognised as the preeminent genotype among five strawberry cultivars based on fruit production per plant (594.73 grammes), yield per hectare (19.39 tonnes), and fruit count per plant (32.42). The SSR technique was utilised to assess genetic variation and connections among five strawberry cultivars. Initially, ten primers were evaluated, and finally, three primers—EMFv104, ARSFL-10, and ARSFL-15—were selected for analysis. ARSFL-10 produced the fewest polymorphic alleles (3), while the markers EMFv104 and ARSFL-15 generated the most polymorphism alleles (4). The allele frequency for each location ranged from 0.4 (EMFv104) to 0.6 (ARSFL-10). The PIC values ranged from 0.672 on EMFv104 to 0.4992 on ARSFL-10. EMFv104 and ARSFL-15 demonstrated gene diversity scores of 0.72, whereas ARSFL-10 achieved a value of 0.56. The genotypes demonstrating the minimal genetic dissimilarity were BARI Strawberry 1 and Festival, with a value of 0.16667. Primer EMFv104 and ARSFL-15 are regarded as the most efficacious SSR markers for strawberry genotypes.