Assessment of genetic stability in micropropagated plants of some ornamental strawberry varieties

In order to evaluate the genetic stability and uniformity of ornamental strawberry plants micropropagated by using a new and highly efficient protocol we have developed recently, RAPD markers were used with intergeneric hybrids ‘Pink Panda’ and ‘Serenata’. Micropropagated shoots selected at random from four subcultures onto either Murashige & Skoog or Lee & Fossard media, each of them supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) at 1.0 mg l-1, indolylacetic acid (IAA) at 1.0 mg l-1 and gibberellic acid (GA3) at 0.1mg l-1, were subjected to molecular analysis. Ten deca-nucleotide primers (among 48 tested) were chosen for RAPD analysis, all of them indicating genetic stability for micropropagated plants of the investigated varieties of ornamental strawberry.