Water soaking in strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) has a polygenic background and is strongly influenced by environmental factors

Water soaking in strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) has a polygenic background and is strongly influenced by environmental factors | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Water soaking in strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) has a polygenic background and is strongly influenced by environmental factors Diana Seidler, Moritz Knoche, Klaus Olbricht, Henryk Flachowsky, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8696980/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 14 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Water soaking (WS) is an economically important surface disorder in open-field production of strawberry ( Fragaria ⋅ ananassa ). The disorder, which impairs fruit quality and quantity, develops after exposure of maturing fruit to rain or high concentrations of water vapor. The susceptibility to WS differs among genotypes, suggesting a genetic component, with earlier studies establishing a close positive relationship between susceptibility to WS and the water permeance of the fruit skin. However, until now, no published studies on the underlying genetics of WS exist. Here, we aimed to identify genetic regions associated with WS and fruit skin permeability using a genetic mapping approach. A biparental F 1 population was established by crossing two genotypes (201409 ⋅ 210706) exhibiting contrasting susceptibility to WS. The trueness-to-type of the progenies was confirmed by genetic fingerprint analysis with molecular markers. WS and permeance for water uptake were phenotyped over two seasons under two different growing conditions using laboratory-based incubation assays. Furthermore, the population was genotyped with the Axiom™ Strawberry FanaSNP 50k Genotyping Array to facilitate genetic mapping and QTL analyses. WS and skin permeance showed a clear segregation and were closely related. Multiple QTL regions were identified for WS and permeance, with one accounting for 16.7% to 28.6% of the phenotypic variation. The detection of several QTLs and the moderate broad-sense heritability of 0.49 suggest a polygenic background of WS. These findings provide the first steps towards understanding the genetic background of this trait, which will allow for developing tolerant cultivars for open-field production. Water soaking Fragaria x ananassa Genetic linkage mapping QTL analysis Broad-sense heritability Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Tables are available in the Supplementary Files section. Supplementary Files Table1.docx Table2.docx Table3.docx Table4.docx Table5.docx Table6.docx ESM1.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 03 Mar, 2026 Reviews received at journal 27 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 24 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 13 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 06 Feb, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 05 Feb, 2026 Editor invited by journal 01 Feb, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 28 Jan, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 28 Jan, 2026 First submitted to journal 26 Jan, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8696980","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":587898801,"identity":"8335998c-446c-4f5b-8355-b50849e2ca1d","order_by":0,"name":"Diana Seidler","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Diana","middleName":"","lastName":"Seidler","suffix":""},{"id":587898802,"identity":"f6bc46bb-6496-445c-a17f-ca90f8f78046","order_by":1,"name":"Moritz Knoche","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Moritz","middleName":"","lastName":"Knoche","suffix":""},{"id":587898803,"identity":"a79bdb33-c3cd-49bd-9deb-30c4381092da","order_by":2,"name":"Klaus Olbricht","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Hansabred GmbH \u0026 Co. 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