Fragaria vesca is a species of diploid woodland and alpine strawberry.Its short generation time,small size,and recently sequenced genome make it a good candidate for development as a model system for investigations of fruit development.We have sequenced and compared the genomes of three F.vesca cultivars: Hawaii 4,Rügen(F7-4),and Yellow Wonder(5AF7)to investigate their genetic relationship and identify molecular markers that distinguish each.These molecular markers will aid in gene mapping and cloning as well as genetic breeding,providing additional tools for studying this model organism.In addition,the genomic variations among the three cultivars may allow us to identify strong candidate genes for observed phenotypic variations such as berry color.Among the three sequenced cultivars,Rügen produces red fruits typical of strawberry while Hawaii 4 and Yellow Wonder produce yellow fruit.The yellow-fruited trait has previously been shown to be caused by a single recessive mutation.We reasoned that the yellow fruit phenotype might be due to a loss-of-function mutation in a gene involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis.To identify the candidate mutation responsible for yellow fruit color,we analyzed variants present in genes involved in regulation or biosynthesis of flavonoids.The most likely candidate is a SNP in FvMYB10,a gene known to be necessary for anthocyanin production in F.vesca.When we amplified and sequenced the FvMYB10 gene from three additional yellow cultivars and nine additional red cultivars,the candidate mutation was found in all of the yellow cultivars and none of the red cultivars.Further experiments such as genomic complementation are underway to test if this mutation is indeed responsible for the yellow fruit color.