ASHS 2024 Conference

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) holds significant commercial importance as a fruit crop. Tissue culture regeneration techniques offer a promising avenue for rapid propagation, genomic study, and biotech breeding, including genome editing and genetic transformation. However, literature reports on cultivated variety-based strawberry regeneration and transformation/genome editing is limited. This study aims to investigate the influence of various tissue culture conditions on the regeneration efficiency of two major cultivated strawberry varieties, 'Chandler' and 'Festival', by assessing the impact of different culture conditions and hormonal treatments on the regeneration of selected varieties' in vitro leaf cultures. The first three open leaves from 4-week-old in vitro cultures were collected and cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with varying concentrations of Thidiazuron (TDZ) (0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 mg/L) combined with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) (0.2 mg/L). The cultures were maintained in a growth chamber with varying light (dark/light) and photoperiod conditions. Regeneration parameters, including regeneration rate, regeneration number, and root development, were recorded over an 8-week period. Preliminary results indicate a significant influence of TDZ concentrations and light conditions on shoot regeneration rate and number. The combination of TDZ at 1 mg/L and 2,4-D at 0.2 mg/L under a 20-day dark pretreatment followed by a light (16/8-hour) condition resulted in the highest regeneration efficiency. Rooting was observed when the cultures were transferred to a hormone-free MS medium.