Strawberries that taste, smell, and look like strawberries. Huelva's quintessential fruit has a privileged place in most refrigerators in Malaga throughout the winter months. Lovers of sour and sweet flavors melt before this fruit and nobody knows its benefits and secrets better than the researchers at the Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IFAPA) of Churriana. Researchers are working to find production methods to harness the existing resources or to create fruits that are resistant to different weather conditions.
They are also working to discover viable chemical and biological alternatives to disinfect the lands, as well as strategies to manage water irrigation more efficiently and sustainably, and to create varieties adapted to different tastes. The institute's researchers are Darwin's equal when it comes to natural selection.
Test tubes, chambers, greenhouses, and even one of Europe's gene bank references are part of their daily lives. Dr. Iraida Amaya has worked for 12 years at the center. She belongs to the strawberry biotechnology group, which is part of the group of researchers dedicated to the production and improvement of strawberries.
"We are currently working to improve the strawberry's antioxidant capacity. Our group works on characterizing the fruit's DNA. We've used molecular markers to create a genetic map of the fruit's chromosomes and we have integrated it with the characteristics of the fruit's nutritional compounds (glucose, sucrose, antioxidants). This helps us know what areas of the genome, which chromosomes, have genes that increase or decrease all these nutritional compounds," she stated. The studies made by her team have allowed them to find the genes that give the fruit the caramel or peach taste it often has.
"This is what we are doing, trying to identify the genes that are responsible for nutritional compounds. Now, we are trying to find the genes that give antioxidant compounds to strawberries, so that the future varieties that hit the markets have more of these compounds," she added.
It is also possible to pass the molecular marker that they have developed to distinguish which strawberries are going to have the required aroma and flavor. In the future, Amaya said, "we'll be able to test the plant seeds to know if the plants will be resistant to pathogens, if they will have sugar, or if the fruit will be harder." This research group is working on important issues, such as the fruit's flavor, improving the crop's environmental sustainability by finding alternatives to the use of methyl bromide to reduce pollution, or using different methods to improve water consumption in the cultivation of strawberries and other soft fruits. Apart from demanding a good taste and quality, consumers also want the fruit to be environmentally sustainable and to have a low carbon and water footprint. Years ago, strawberry growers became obsessed with the fruit's hardness to prevent if from perishing so quickly. Now, Amaya said, "strawberries are quite firm and can be transported to the rest of Europe."
Malaga's Ifapa has a staff of 61, including researchers, technicians and support staff, and more than 10 doctors and highly qualified people devoting their efforts to these projects. In addition, they have specific laboratories at their disposal where the genes of this popular fruit are the stars.
"Strawberries are rich in vitamin C, folic acid, and flavonoid nutritional-type compounds. They also have anthocyanins, which give the fruit its red color. According to studies, diets that are rich in this element could prevent cardiovascular diseases and could even reduce the chances of getting cancer," said Amaya who also aded that the study was hampered by its genetic complexity. "It's very difficult to work with strawberries in the laboratory, as it an octoploid species, i.e. it has eight copies of each gene, which complicates its genetic analysis," she said.
A long path
Many of the researchers at Ifapa have been studying strawberries for 25 years. Dr. Jose Sanchez Sevilla, who is responsible for the gene bank center, has spent the last two decades studying strawberries and their components. Although he regrets not spending so much time in the laboratory as before, he is now responsible for an area that is home to 380 different varieties of strawberry plus 110 wild species. "I explain what a gene bank is to students that come here. I tell them that we keep something as valuable as species varieties here," he said.
Currently, Sanchez spends most of his time in front of a computer with Dr. Carmen Soria, collaborating with 8 European countries, plus China and Chile, on the Goodberry project. The goal of the initiative isn't to find the perfect strawberry but finding one that best adapts to the different characteristics of the countries that want to cultivate it. "The idea is to make a genotyping of a set of strawberry plants to be evaluated in several locations in Europe," he said. They will conduct a tasting of this popular fruit within a few months.
Throughout the years, the lab from Malaga has developed up to 9 different strawberry varieties grown worldwide. One is the Amiga strawberry, which is consumed in southern Italy and Turkey. "It is a firm early variety. It has a good marketing and low probabilities of being damaged when transported to the market," said Sanchez, who added that this fruit had become an obsession of his. "There is no perfect strawberry," he said, adding that each country had different needs regarding this product.
The strawberry that the Spaniards like also has its own characteristics so Malaga is looking for the perfect fruit for them. "What we look for is a fruit that has a good production, that is firm, and has a balance of sweetness and acidity. We observe if they are tolerant to as many diseases as possible to avoid having to fumigate them as much, and that they don't require as much water. In addition, we are also very concerned about their flavor," said Iraida Amaya.
A few months ago, doctors Maria Teresa Ariza, Carmen Soria, and Elsa Martinez-Ferri stated that the seeds of this fruit had 81% of all the antioxidant compounds that are closely related to beneficial health effects, and that said compounds could be modified during digestion. They highlighted the importance of these results for the collection and selection of healthy varieties that could therefore be considered as new goals for the plant breeding programs.
In the 90s the IFAPA started the collection of the Frogaria gender and of wild species, which has grown to be a gene bank with more than 500 accessions worldwide. Each year, more than a dozen new varieties of this fruit that obsesses consumers appear on the market. Consumers roam the aisles looking for the perfect strawberry, a challenge they share with millions.
Source: laopiniondemalaga.es