Chemical composition and inheritance patterns of Aroma in Fragaria x ananassa and Fragaria virginiana progenies

Carrasco, B. Centro de Investigación en Biotecnología Silvoagrícola, 2 Instituto de Biología Vegetal y Biotecnología, Universidad de Talca, Casilla 721, Talca, Chile. E-mail bcarrasc@utalca.cl.Retamales, J.B. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias and Centro de Investigación en Biotecnología Silvoagrícola, Universidad de Talca, Casilla 747, Talca, ChileThe strawberry aroma is one of the most popular fruit flavors (Bood and Zabetakis, 2002); its chemical composition has been extensively studied (Mc Fadden et al., 1965; Pérez et al., 2002; Schreier, 1980). To date, over 300 different aromatic compounds have been identified (Latrasse, 1991; Zabetakis and Holden, 1997). Among them, esters and furanones are considered the main aroma determinants in fresh strawberries. Although aroma is a highly appreciated organoleptic attribute, studies to determine the genetic basis of strawberry aroma are scarce (Aharoni et al., 2000). They have been focused on identifying some specific genes, but little is known about the inheritance patterns of the aroma trait and the main compounds associated with it. The objective of this study was to determine the nature of aroma inheritance in segregating populations of strawberries and identify the most important aroma component