Quality Traits, Volatile Organic Compounds, and Expression of Key Flavor Genes in Strawberry Genotypes over Harvest Period

Six strawberry genotypes were examined for fruit yield and size, important chemical traits (sugars, phenolics, anthocyanins, ascorbic acid, volatiles) and antioxidant properties (ferric reducing power). In addition, we determined the expression of genes and transcription factors (SAAT, FaNES1, FaFAD1, FaEGS2, FaEOBII and FaMYB10) controlling the main flavor and aroma traits, and finally evaluated the effect of the genotype and harvest time on the examined chemical and genetic factors, as well as their intercorrelations. The commercial varieties ‘Fortuna’, ‘Victory’, ‘Calderon’, ‘Rociera’, and two advanced selections Ber22/6 and Ber23/3 were cultivated under the same conditions at Berryplasma World Ltd. plantations (Varda, Ilia, Region of Western Greece). Strawberries were harvested at three different time points over the main harvest period in Greece, i.e., early March (T1), late March (T2) and late April (T3). ‘Fortuna’ exhibited the highest early and total yield, while ‘Calderon’, the highest average berry weight. General Linear Model repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that the interaction of the genotype and harvest time was significant (p < 0.001) on all tested quality attributes and gene expression levels, showing that each genotype behaves differently throughout the harvest period. Exceptions were observed for: (a) the volatile anhydrides, fatty acids, aromatics and phenylpropanoids (all were greatly affected by the harvest time), and (b) lactones, furaneol and FaEGS2 that were affected only by the genotype. We observed significant intercorrelations among those factors, e.g., the positive correlation of FaFAD1 expression with decalactone and nerolidol, of SAAT with furaneol, trans-cinnamic acid and phenylpropanoids, and of FaEGS2 with decalactone and FaFAD1. Moreover, a strong positive correlation between SAAT and FaMYB10 and a moderate negative one between SAAT and glucose were also detected. Those correlations can be further investigated to reveal potential markers for strawberry breeding. Overall, our study contributes to a better understanding of strawberry physiology, which would facilitate breeding efforts for the development of new strawberry varieties with superior qualitative traits.