Micropropagation and Genetic Fidelity in Strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa Duch.): Current Status and Future Directions

Morden strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is an economically important octoploid fruit crop, prized for its nutritional value, commercial returns and antioxidant-rich fruit. Its conventional propagation through runners, however, is limited by a low multiplication rate and a high risk of systemic pathogen transmission, creating a clear need for alternative methods capable of producing uniform, disease-free planting material at scale. In vitro micropropagation has become the technique of choice for rapid clonal multiplication, though prolonged culture duration and callus-mediated regeneration can induce somaclonal variation and compromise clonal fidelity. This review critically examines recent progress in explant selection, surface sterilization protocols, culture media optimization, plant growth regulator combinations, direct versus indirect regeneration pathways, rooting strategies and acclimatization techniques for strawberry micropropagation, with particular attention to the assessment of genetic stability through molecular markers such as RAPD, ISSR, SSR and EST-SSR. Evidence drawn from multiple studies shows that direct organogenesis from nodal or shoot-tip explants, combined with optimized cytokinin concentrations, substantially reduces the risk of genetic instability relative to indirect, callus-based regeneration. Molecular marker analyses have repeatedly confirmed high genetic uniformity among micropropagated plantlets raised under controlled, standardized protocols. Despite this progress, challenges remain in standardizing protocols across cultivars, achieving cost-effective scale-up and detecting the subtle epigenetic or somaclonal changes that conventional markers can miss. Future work should focus on integrating high-throughput and epigenetic screening tools, automating micropropagation systems and developing cultivar-specific protocols to further improve efficiency and reliability. Taken together, pairing optimized micropropagation systems with robust molecular validation offers a sustainable pathway for commercial nursery production, germplasm conservation and genetic improvement programs in strawberry.