In vitro screening of octoploid Fragaria chiloensis and Fragaria virginiana genotypes against iron defciency

Abstract

Iron (Fe) defciency is one of the common problems in strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) growing regions. In vitro screening enables researchers to evaluate genotype performance under several concentrations of Fe in a relatively fast and economicalway. Terefore, we evaluated the responses of several genotypes belonging to octoploid Fragaria chiloensis (L.) Mill. and Fragariavirginiana Mill. (the progenitors of cultivated strawberry) against Fe treatments under in vitro conditions. In the frst experiment,HM 1, Pigeon Point, CFRA1267 (F. chiloensis subsp. pacifca ), and CA1541 (F. chiloensis subsp. chiloensis) were tested with various Feconcentrations (0%, 10%, 15%, 25%, 50%, 65%, 80%, and 100%, where 100% = 27.8 mg L 1 FeSO 4.7H 2O). Diferent Fe concentrationtreatments resulted in diferences in plant height, fresh and dry weight, as well as macro- and microelement concentrations amongthe tested genotypes. In the second experiment, 16 octoploid Fragaria genotypes were tested with 4 Fe concentration treatments (0%,10%, 50%, and 100%, where 100% = 27.8 mg L 1 FeSO 4.7H 2O). Iron concentration and genotype interactions were signifcant for allstudied characteristics except sulfur (S) and manganese (Mn) concentrations, and the 16 genotypes responded diferentially to varyingFe treatments. Te results of these experiments indicated that F. chiloensis and F. virginiana genotypes exhibited considerable variationunder diferent Fe treatments in vitro, and the more resistant genotypes could be utilized to develop new strawberry cultivars withtolerance to low Fe concentrations.