A New Technology Enabling New Advances in Strawberry Genetics

Abstract

Genetics and genomics tools have undergone a revolution in the last decade whether for humans, animals or plants. Although most current tools support organisms with simple genomic architecture (haploids or diploids), plants have diverse ploidy levels and genomic arrangements. For example, rosaceous crops like apple, peach and sweet cherry are diploid; sour cherry is a tetraploid; and cultivated strawberry is an octoploid. The genetic concepts and theories developed in animal or human sciences are transferrable to plants most of the time. However, crops like octoploid strawberry require special tools suited to its genetics.