Phylogenetic Relationships of Nine Cultivars of Strawberries (Fragaria spp.) Based on Anatomical and Morphological Characters

Abstract

Strawberry cultivation in Indonesia is centred at Citrus and Subtropical Fruit Research Institute, which collects different cultivars of Fragaria spp. Information on classification based on phenotypic characters of Fragaria spp. has not been studied as a whole. The purpose of the present study was to identify and determine phylogenic relationships of nine cultivars of strawberries based on the anatomical and morphological characters. The present study identified morphologically nine strawberry cultivars by referring to the IPGRI (1986) and the UPOV (2012) and Hofer et al. (2012). Anatomical preparations of roots, stems and leaves were made by the embedding method. Phylogenetic relationships were determined using MVSP software with UPGMA algorithm through the Gower General Similarity Coefficient method. Subsequently, the principal components were analyzed using the Euclidian Biplots algorithm depicted in a Scatter plot. Results showed that there were 37 anatomical and morphological characters that play a role in the characterization of nine cultivars (25 synthetic characters and 12 diagnostics characters) where the shape of the fruit and type of attachment of the flowers were the main characters distinguishing among the nine cultivars studied. The phylogenetic relationship produced two clusters with 79% similarity index. The closely related cultivars were Festival and Rosa Linda with a similarity index of 94%, and Earlibrite and Aerut with a similarity index of 86%