THE INOTALIS BREEDING PROGRAM (PLANASA AND DARBONNE) – NEW TRENDS AND CHALLENGES IN STRAWBERRY PLANT BREEDING

Inotalis was created in 2005 from the merging of the breeding operations of the Spanish company Plantas de Navarra S.A. (Planasa), a pioneer in the research and development of new cultivars suited to the Mediterranean climate, and the French company Darbonne, a reference in plant breeding for the countries of Central and Northern Europe. Both strawberry breeding programs started more than 25 years ago and follow the classical selection scheme of parental selection from germplasm, directed crosses, seedling screening, evaluation of new selections, and production of clean material for foundation nurseries. An ambitious program started 10 years ago for the study and use of molecular markers for varietal identification, germplasm characterization and marker assisted selection. As a result of these breeding programs, cultivars such as ‘Darline’ (1992), ‘Darflash’ (1992), ‘Darselect’ (1996) and ‘Daroyal’ (2003) for Northern European type climate; and ‘Tudla’^® (1989), ‘Tudnew’^® (1992), ‘Cartuno’ (1995) and ‘Sabrosa-Candonga’^® (2003) for Mediterranean type climate were released with significant commercial success. Besides, new cultivars with great projections are being introduced now like ‘Carmela’ and ‘Macarena’ for the Mediterranean climate or ‘Donna’ and ‘Diana’ for the northern European climate. Key objectives of both programs changed through the time, as they were influenced by the evolution and trends of farmer’s needs, consumer taste, and breeding achievements.