Search

Controlling the flowering habit of strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is important for extending its period of production and increasing yields. In strawberry, the single dominant Perpetual Flowering Runnering (PFRU) locus controls the perpetual flowering (PF) trait, as revealed using a traditional linkage analysis with DNA markers. Additional DNA markers for PFRU have been developed using the linkage map; however, they have only been applied to the limited cultivars showing polymorphisms. Furthermore, distinguishing between genotypes homozygous and heterozygous for PFRU is difficult because only the dominant markers were previously available. Here, we identified the PFRU locus by performing a genome-wide association study with whole-genome sequencing data and a publicly available reference genome and mapped the previously reported DNA marker onto a physical map of F. × ananassa. This accurate location for PFRU may facilitate the development of DNA markers that can be applied to various cultivars/lines, accelerating the breeding of PF-type strawberry cultivars and facilitating the isolation of the PFRU causal gene by further narrowing down the candidate region.