BBSRC-funded scientists have contributed to publication of the wild strawberry genome, which will help strawberry breeders develop disease resistance and improve fruit quality to benefit consumers.
Published in the journal Nature Genetics, the genome was discovered by a consortium of researchers working across five continents.
Dr Dan Sargent, based at East Malling Research (EMR) in Kent, collaborated on the international project as part of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Crop Science Initiative, which was set up to fund research to underpin future plant breeding.
Sargent hopes the genome will help to identify genes that convey disease resistance, particularly to strawberry wilt (Verticillium dahliae), the most wide-spread soil-borne pathogen of cultivated strawberries.
Although resistant varieties of strawberry do currently exist, they do not meet the quality criteria required to sell to consumers.
Having access to the wild strawberry genome may allow breeders to produce varieties that need reduced pesticide treatment but retain the best characteristics of taste, appearance and nutrition.
The researchers found that the wild strawberry genome possesses around 35,000 genes, about one and a half times the number humans have, most of which, they predict will have been retained by the varieties we eat.
Sales of home-grown strawberries in the UK alone amounted to GBP231m in 2009.
The wild strawberry is also closely related to roses and important food crops including apples, peaches, pears and raspberries, therefore its genome sequence will help breeders of those plants, too, produce new varieties with improved traits.
The international consortium sequenced the wild strawberry genome by breaking it up into millions of short segments that were sequenced individually and then re-assembled.
The UK-based team at EMR worked on piecing together the genome using a map based on other strawberry genomes they had worked on.
BBSRC chief executive Professor Douglas Kell said that modern sequencing techniques are very powerful, enabling quite large genomes to be sequenced in a matter of days or weeks, as opposed to the months or years previously required.
He added that the large amount of data produced through such research must be shared and stored effectively in order to make the most of it, which will be essential in addressing global food security.
