Development of F₁-hybrid Strawberry of Seed Propagation Type Named ‘Yotsuboshi’ by Collaborative Breeding among Institutes

Abstract

A seed propagation type of strawberry cultivar, ‘Yotsuboshi’, was collectively developed by four institutes belonging to Mie Prefecture, Kagawa Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, and the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization. It is an F₁-hybrid, whose maternal and paternal lines are a ‘Miebohon 1 gou’ and ‘A8S4-147’, respectively. ‘Yotsuboshi’ has several attractive traits, such as a clear red fruit color, excellent fruit shape, high yielding ability, and superior taste with a high content of soluble solids and moderate acidity. The behavior of flower initiation is quite unique: ‘Yotsuboshi’ exhibits earliness under natural conditions with a lower temperature and shorter day length, while flower initiation is also induced under long-day treatment. Genotype analysis with the published DNA markers for strawberry variety identification demonstrated that 23 of the 25 CPAS markers and 45 SSR markers were available to differentiate ‘Yotsuboshi’ from other varieties. We expect ‘Yotsuboshi’ to become widely cultivated across Japan.