Genetic control of day-neutral habit in Fragaria vesca L. (Rosaceae) populations in Western Siberia

Abstract

In Western Siberia, the Fragaria vesca active flowering occurs in the first ten days of June, while fruiting occurs at the end of June–beginning of July. During the expeditionary surveys of natural Fragaria vesca L. populations in Western Siberia in 2002–2013, we detected cases of re-flowering plant in August–October. The aim of the present work was to study the genetic control of re-flowering emergence in woodland Fragaria vesca populations. The F. vesca specimen from expeditionary collections and seedlings grown from the seeds collected in August–October in natural places of growth of the woodland strawberry were used as the research material. In addition, the genetic analysis of seedlings obtained from the seeds from the self-pollination of specimens of expeditionary collections was carried out. The re-flowering and fruiting was studied in 1486 seedlings obtained from plants with a seasonal fruiting. Representatives of 32 populations from Western Siberia and 856 seedlings from 10 populations were involved in the analysis. The genetic analysis of reflowering Fragaria vesca plants (growing under natural conditions) demonstrated that they are usually homozygous for the dominant allele (seasonal flowering). Demonstration of the F. vesca re-flowering in Western Siberia is considered as a temporary reaction of the plant genotype to the specific growth conditions for the vegetation season. Heterozygous plants for the type of fruiting plants were detected only in a single woodland strawberry population located in the foothills of Kuznetsk Alatau. The type of segregation in the progeny from the self-pollination of the plants from this population indicates that the day neutrality is monofactorially controlled with a recessive type of inheritance and has the same nature of origin as in Alpine F. vesca populations.