The rapid growth of the global population causes an unprecedented increase in food demand, which places a high pressure on agriculture and natural resources. To meet the world’s future demand for food security it will be necessary to obtain a substantial increase in agriculture and food production. At the same time, agricultural systems are naturally susceptible to impacts of changing climate and the spread of intensive agriculture cause global pollinator declines. More than one third of global production volume comes from plants that depend fully or partially on animal pollination. They include fruit crops that are essential sources of a healthy human diet. To meet future challenges, researchers and plant breeders are becoming more interested in the strategies of plant improvement that can secure high yield in the absence of animal pollinators. Understanding the regulation of fruit set and development can provide means for breeding plants adapted to new climatic conditions and guarantee efficient production. The overall focus of this project is cultivated strawberry a major berry fruit with production of more than 4.5 million tons in 2012. However, this plant has very complicated genetic background. Therefore, we use woodland strawberry, one of the ancestors of cultivated strawberry, to study physiological and genetic aspects of fruit set and fruit development. The obtained knowledge can be directly used for improvement of cultivated strawberry.
