RT Conference Proceedings T1 Identification of candidate genes for methylketones content in a collection of european woodland strawberry A1 Urrutia, María A1 Meco, Victoriano A1 Rambla, José Luis A1 Toivainen, Tuomas A1 Pillet, Jeremy A1 Trapero-Mozos, Almudena A1 Martín-Pizarro, Carmen A1 Sánchez-Gómez, Carlos A1 Salas, Joaquín A1 Granell, Antonio A1 Hytönen, Timo A1 Posé-Padilla, David K1 Fresas K1 Olores AB Woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca, 2x) is the diploid closest ancestor of the cultivated strawberry (Fragaria xannassa, 8x) and the model species for genetic studies in the Fragaria genus. It is naturally distributed all across Europe and it is appreciated for their delicate aroma and flavor.Methylketones are compounds with demonstrated insect repellent effects. Its synthesis, reported to take place in glandular trichomes of wild tomato (Solanum habrochaites), is mediated by a thioesterase (ShMKS2) and adecarboxylase (ShMKS1) (Ben Israel et al. 2009; Yu et al. 2010).A natural population of 199 accessions of F. vesca that represents the European diversity was resequenced (>1.8M SNPs) and characterized for the accumulation of methylketones and their derived alcohols. By genome wide association analysis (GWAS), we have detected a stable series of polymorphisms associated to the accumulation of C7, C9 and C11 methylketones and their respective alcohols. Three different haplotypes in the candidate region with different patterns of methylketones were found, suggesting differences in enzymatic activity and/or substrate affinity. The candidate region includes two genes annotated as thioesterases that are homolog to ShMKS2, FvMKS2A, FvMKS2B. Functional validation of both genes has revealed methyl ketones synthesis ability in transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana. The function and specificity of these candidate genes is currently under study through several approaches, including transient expression in different hosts and enzymatic function characterization. YR 2021 FD 2021-01-22 LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/20822 UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/20822 LA eng NO Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga RD 20 ene 2026