Introgression and confirmation of everbearing trait in strawberry ( x Duch.).

Unlabelled: The present investigation was targeted towards a highly desirable everbearing trait in strawberry ( ×  Duch.) via marker assisted selection while seeing its worldwide commercial applicability through the extended harvest season. The crosses were made between everbearing and june-bearing cultivars to raise the F individuals. Morphological characters (plant, floral, and fruit) were assessed that showed significant differences among the strawberry cultivars. Molecular characterization was carried out between everbearing and non-everbearing cultivars using RAPD and SSR markers. For phenotyping, a chi-square test was performed and revealed that out of all four cross combinations, the best fitted cross found to be in Mendelian segregation ratio (1:1) was 'Confectura' × 'Torrey' with χ-value 1.58. Further, the identified polymorphic markers were assessed across the F individuals of cross 'Confectura' × 'Torrey' for its genotyping. It could be revealed that the targeted everbearing trait is governed by a dominant gene(s) in the subjected strawberry genotypes. Further, the identified polymorphic markers would be successfully employed in DNA fingerprinting of strawberry under various crop improvement programme.

Supplementary Information: The online version of this article (10.1007/s12298-020-00916-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.