Varietal Improvement in Strawberry : Induction of Somaclonal Variation in Strawberry and Evaluation of Variants to Different Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

The present study was conducted to standardize a suitable protocol of in vitro plant regeneration potentiality of seven strawberry varieties viz. AOG, JP-2, JP-3, Camarosa, Sweet Charly, Giant Mountain and Festival. Young leaves, mature leaves and nodes of seven strawberry varieties were used for callus induction and plant regeneration. Among the seven strawberry varieties AOG was found to be the most responsive genotype for primary culture establishment, callus induction, shoot regeneration and rooting. A total of 40- 45 somaclones from each of the tested varieties were established and maintained in the field and were considered as Ro plants. There were no plants found resistance to fungal diseases but somaclones showed better tolerence than the donor plants. Majority of plants were found heat sensitive in donor plants but somaclones of AOG SC 3 showed better performance than other somaclones and donor parents in terms of summer overcoming capacity. These somaclones can be acceptable commercially if the good characters exhibited are transmitted through generations or could be used in future breeding programme for the improvement of strawberry varieties in Bangladesh.