Three experiments were conducted about 1) temperature effects on ever-bearing strawberry pollen performance, 2) generative characteristics of strawberry cultivar and breeding selections, and 3) harvest time effects on antioxidant levels of strawberry cultivars and breeding selections. The effects of high temperature on pollen performance have been evaluated in two ever-bearing strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) cultivars (‘Charlotte’ and ‘Goha’) at glasshouse and plastic house in Daegwallyeong Research Center, Gangwon Province, South Korea from June to August 2013. Different cultivars showed different results for most of subject observations. The flower initiation for ‘Goha’ was earlier than ‘Charlotte’. Besides, pollen viability and pollen germination, number of flowers, number of fruits, and fruit weight per plant for ‘Goha’ were higher than ‘Charlotte’. But, the percentage of abnormal fruits for ‘Charlotte’ was higher than ‘Goha’. Different temperature at glasshouse and plastic house affected on pollen viability, pollen germination, flower initiation, time of flowering to fruit maturity, percentage of flower to fruit conversion, and percentage of malformed fruits. Glasshouse with mean day/night temperature 26/21 oC reduced pollen viability and pollen germination, accelerated flower initiation, accelerated time of flowering to fruit maturity but decreased conversion from flower to fruit compared to strawberry plants in plastic house with mean day/night temperature 25/18 oC. Higher temperature at glass house than plastic house resulted in higher number of flowers but also resulted in higher percentage of malformed fruits. These results suggest that high temperature in ever-bearing strawberries are associated with reduced pollen performance and strawberry cultivar ‘Goha’ is more resistant to high temperature than cultivar ‘Charlotte’. The evaluation of generative characteristics and antioxidant levels been conducted on seventeen strawberry genotypes, four cultivars and thirteen breeding selections, that were cultivated in a plastic house in Gangneung-Wonju National University from September 2013 until May 2014. The generative characteristics including flower bud initiation, flower anthesis, required time from flower bud to fruit ripe, number of inflorescence, number of flower per inflorescence, fruit shape, fruit size, fruit weight, total yield, and sugar content (oBrix) were observed. ‘Sulhyang’ cultivar showed the earliest flower bud initiation whereas ‘Toukun’ cultivar was the last genotype that showed the flower bud initiation. Required time from flower bud to anthesis was ranged between 11 until 32 days and required time from flower bud to fruit ripe was ranged between 49 until94 days. ‘Sulhyang’ cultivar produced the highest number of inflorescences whereas the breeding selection ‘San x Mae 5’ produced the lowest number of inflorescences during growth. ‘Toukun’ produced the highest number of flowers on first inflorescence but produced the lowest number of flowers in second inflorescence and the range for number of flowers was 9 to 20 flowers per flower’s stalk. Most of strawberry genotypes have conic fruit shape except for ‘Toukun’ that has globose conic shape, ‘Jukhyang’, ‘Al x Sul 7’, ‘San x Aki 2’, and ‘Aki x Al 13’ that have long conic shape, and ‘San x Mae 5’ has necked shape. The breeding selection ‘Al x Sul 7’ has the longest fruit size and ‘Toukun’ cultivar has the widest fruit size. ‘San x Sul 13’ has the highest fruit weight but ‘San x Aki 2’ has the highest total yield which reached 1 kg/plant during growth. ‘Jukhyang’ cultivar contained the highest level of sugar content which reached 13 oBrix. The breeding selection ‘San x Aki 2’ and ‘San x Sul 13’ were emerged as promising selection for having a better generative characteristics than other breeding selections and producing a high yield. The antioxidant levels including total anthocyanin content, total phenolic content, soluble sugar content, and organic acid content were observed from February until May 2014. Fruits harvested on February have the highest content in total anthocyanin, sucrose, glucose, and fructose content. All these substances were slowly decreased as time passed from February to May. Total phenolic, citric acid, and malic acid content for all cultivars and selections were variable depending on each month observation.The breeding selection ‘Aki x Al 13’ was among the highest for total anthocyanin content for the first and second harvest time, while ‘Jukhyang’ cultivar was the highest total phenolic content. Soluble sugar contents for strawberry were decreased each month observation with highest sucrose content contained by ‘Jukhyang’, the highest glucose content contained by ‘Al x Mae 14’, and the highest fructose content contained by ‘San x Sug 5’. Whereas for organic acid content, the highest citric acid content contained by ‘San x Mae 5’and the malic content of ‘San x Sul 13’ was the highest. The breeder selection ‘Aki x Al 13’ was emerged as a promising selection lines for producing fruit with high concentrations of antioxidant phytochemicals.
Contents iiiList of tables vList of figures viiAcknowledgements viiiChapter I. Introduction 1Chapter II. Literatures Review 32.1. Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) 32.2. Temperature effects on plant growth and pollen performance 72.3. Antioxidant levels of soft fruits 8Chapter III. Effects of high temperature on pollen performance in ever-bearing strawberry cultivars 14Abstract 143.1. Introduction 153.2. Materials and method 163.2.1. Plant materials 163.2.2. Data collection 173.2.2.1. Reproductive characters 173.2.2.2. Pollen viability 173.2.2.3. Pollen germination 173.2.3. Statistical analysis 183.3. Results 183.4. Discussions 223.4.1. Reproductive characteristics of strawberry cultivars as affected by different temperatures 223.4.2. Pollen performance and fruit malformation of strawberry cultivars as affected by different temperatures 23Chapter IV. Generative characteristics of strawberry cultivars and breeding selections 26Abstract 264.1. Introduction 274.2. Materials and method 284.2.1. Plant materials 284.2.2. Data collection and statistical analysis 294.3. Results 304.4. Discussion 37Chapter V. Effects of cultivars and harvest time on antioxidant levels of strawberry 39Abstract 395.1. Introduction 405.2. Materials and method 425.2.1. Plant materials 425.2.2. Data collection 435.2.2.1. Total anthocyanin content 435.2.2.2. Total phenolic acid content 445.2.2.3. Soluble sugars and organic acid content 445.2.3. Statistical analysis 455.3. Results 465.4. Discussions 61References 64Summary 75요약 78