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The cultivated strawberry of South America, the octoploid Fragaria chiloensis L. has a long and interesting history. While the origin of the species in Chile cannot be completely determined, it is suspected to be an introduction from North America by birds. After making landfall in Chile, the species spread from the coast into the mountains developing a number of four ecotypes over a long period. At least two native people, the Mapuche, between Rio Bio-Bio and south-central Chile, and the Picunche, between Rio Itata and Rio Bio-Bio, began the domestication process. While white and red fruited forms were developed, the white form (because of fruit size) seemed to have been preferred as the red fruited types are not mentioned frequently in the literature. At the time of the Spanish invasion of Chile, F. chiloensis was widely grown in small garden plots. Over time under the Spanish rule, larger plantings first of 1–2 ha and later of many hectares were grown. As the Spanish continued their exploration and conquest of South America, they carried F. chiloensis with them up the western coast to Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. For many years these scattered plantings were the source of fresh fruit for the burgeoning populations. The cultivated F. x ananassa Duch. ex Rozier was introduced in Chile around 1830, but the F. chiloensis was still preferentially grown. In the early 1900s, a large canning industry that served hundreds of acres of F. chiloensis planting thrived. By the 1950s, F. x ananassa began to predominate and the rise of the importance of the University of California and European developed strawberries that was impacting the world also displaced much of the traditional production. An increased awareness of this vast genetic resource arose in the 1980s and 1990s. Faculty, particularly at the Universidad de Talca, have collected and characterized germplasm that represents not only tremendous diversity but captures many of the land races that have been developed. This germplasm has been utilized in small commercial plantings (0.1–0.3 ha) and in breeding programs to further develop F. chiloensis commercial cultivars. There is still a small but vibrant community of small growers in Chile (along the North-Central coast of the Pacific Ocean) and Ecuador (mainly around Ambato) producing the land races for commercial sale in local markets. It is estimated that around 30 ha of open field plantings are cultivated in Chile with yields averaging around 3–4 tons/ha.
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... chiloensis) (Figure 9) was exported to Chile from Europe in the early eighteenth century, and it is the maternal progenitor of the commercial strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) [55]. Mapuche and Picunche people cultivated this plant, and the fruit was consumed as a nutritive food or fermented drink in ceremonial rites [116]. In this regard, flavonoids, mainly anthocyanins, are strawberries' main constituents of phenolic compounds [117]. ...
... Notably, the nutritional composition of the strawberry varies considerably with its genetic background. White Chilean strawberries are a good source of phenolic antioxidants [116]. Furthermore, in vitro studies have shown that white Chilean strawberry fruit has a high free radical scavenging effect [117]. ...
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... Strawberry has a long history of genetic improvement for traits associated with the sensory quality of the fruit. Certainly, since ancient times, the aborigines of the new world [12,120,125,126], practiced selection for some organoleptic characteristics such as fruit weight, color, firmness and flavor, outstanding attributes that have been reported in the landrace's varieties of Chile [124][125][126][127]. These qualities, which are under genetic control, have been incorporated into commercial cultivars of F. xananassa. ...
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This book fully integrates the conventional and biotechnological approaches to fruit crop breeding. Individual chapters are written on a wide variety of species including apple, apricot, blackberry, blueberry, cranberry, cherry, currant, gooseberry, grape, kiwifruit, peach, pear, plum, raspberry and strawberry. For each crop, there is a discussion of their taxonomy and evolution, history of improvement, crossing techniques, evaluation methods, heritability of major traits and germplasm resources, along with the most recent advances in genetic mapping and QTL (quantitative trait loci) analysis, marker assisted breeding, gene cloning, gene expression analysis, regeneration and transformation. Patenting and licensing issues are also covered. This book will be useful in fruit breeding classes and should provide as a springboard for all fruit breeders desiring an update on the latest technologies, horticulturalists who wonder what is being done in fruit breeding and genomicists searching for a way to contribute to fruit breeding efforts.
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The major cultivated strawberry species, Fragaria x ananassa, is a hybrid of two native species, F. chiloensis and F. virginiana. Strawberry breeders are focused on improving local adaptations, fruit quality, productivity and disease resistance, and many are interested in developing new day-neutral cultivars. Some of the major pathogens worldwide are Botrytis cinerea, Colletotrichum spp., Phytophthora cactorum, Phytophthora fragariaeandVerticillium albo-atrum. The genetics of many of the horticulturally important traits have been investigated in strawberry and a number of genes have been characterized and cloned that are highly expressed during fruit ripening and maturation. Marker systems have been developed in strawberry for genetic linkage mapping and QTL have been identified for the day neutrality trait and several other fruit characteristics. Transgenic strawberries have been produced with herbicide and pest resistance and an effective marker-free transformation process has been developed. Two major EST libraries have been generated as genomic resources.