ABSTRACT
Cultivated strawberries are allo-octoploids of interspecific hybrid origin. In this chaper, we focus on five main topics: 1) an overview of species and interspecific hybrids in the genus Fragaria; 2) historical use of interspecific and intergeneric hybrids in strawberry breeding; 3) practical methods for producing interspecific hybrids; 4) practical methods to evaluate hybridity and chromosome doubling; and 5) examples from our recent breeding programs using wild strawberries. We describe breeding approaches using the decaploid interspecific hybrid cultivar ‘Tokun’ in Japan, as well as breeding using Fragaria chiloensis ‘CHI-24-1’ which exhibits a unique photoperiodic reaction to flower initiation. The present article is helpful to understand the botanical aspects of wild strawberries, useful techniques for strawberry breeding, and recent progress in strawberry breeding using interspecific hybrids.
