Genotypic by phenotypic interaction affects the heritability and relationship among quantity and quality traits of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa)

The success of plant breeding depends on diversity in plant genetic resources and their responses to changing environments. Accordingly, 20 strawberry genotypes with diverse genetic background were evaluated for their performance under different environments based on the estimation of their genetic variability and heritability. The results showed that environmental factors have great influences on changing the size of the measured traits. Also, a high heritability and genetic variation detected for yield and its components showed a strong potential for improvement among the strawberry genotypes and being considered as raw materials in breeding programs. Biplot and heatmap, in line with the clustering, showed to be key methods for finding the structural association among genotypes and traits. Cluster analysis showed that the genotypes originating from the same geographic area were not necessarily placed in the same clusters which could be due to the environmental variability and the different responses of the genotypes coming from altered genetic materials. The overall results regarding multivariate analyses showed that genotypes Kurdistan, Queen Elisa and No.14 could be considered as a cluster with high similarity for being crossed by other genotypes in the clusters such as groups of Pajaro and Chandler, or the group of Selva and Gaviota.