FRUIT QUALITY TRAITS OF STRAWBERRY GENOTYPES OF DIFFERENT PLOIDY

Octoploid F. × ananassa strawberries are known as being highly endowed with nutritional and protective compounds in comparison to other fruits. However, information about the fruit quality of other Fragaria species or hybrids with different ploidy is still limited. The Fruit Research Station of Forlì (CRA-FRF) has started a study to investigate the range of variation of important fruit traits in its rich Fragaria spp. germplasm collection. In 2010, ripe fruits of 24 accessions differing per ploidy, inlcuding 12 diploid (2x=14) F. vesca; 7 hexaploid (6x=42) F. moschata; 3 octoploid (8x=56) F. × ananassa, two commercial varieties, an F. chiloensis × F. × ananassa hybrid, and 2 hybrids of unknown ploidy, were sampled and the quality traits of each measured. The range of variation of each qualitative trait was large within and among ploidy groups. Multivariate analysis methods were applied to the dataset to establish the relationships among qualitative variables (Principal Component Analysis) and to discover natural groupings (Cluster analysis) in the 24 strawberry accessions based on the similarity of their qualitative traits. The results of the first year of the study are discussed.