Molecular characterization of ripening fruit processes in strawberry starting from a transcribed genomic DNA fraction

ruit ripening processes are controlled by several factors such as genotype, crop management and nutrition. Knowledge of the genes involved in these pathways would be desirable for improvement of a high quality fruit production. Flavour is considered the most important trait in fruit quality. In the last 40 years, more than 300 different volatile compounds were identified by several studies carried out on berries. In the present study, four different strawberry genotypes were analyzed at four different levels of ripening. At the same stages leaves from all the genotypes were also collected. mRNA was extracted either from fruit or leaves and cDNA was obtained starting from the expressed fraction of DNA. The molecular analyses were carried out by cDNA-AFLP and PCR analysis using degenerate primers. Significant differences among genotypes and ripening levels were observed in the expressed DNA fraction.