Identification of QTL Underlying Soluble Solids Content and Titratable Acidity in Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium L.)

Tuesday, July 29, 2014: 10:30 AM
Salon 8 (Rosen Plaza Hotel)
Yunyang Zhao , Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Washington State University, Prosser, WA
Umesh Rosyara , Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Amy F. Iezzoni , Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Cameron Peace , Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Matthew Whiting , Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Washington State University, Prosser, WA
Amit Dhingra , Department of Horticulture, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Nnadozie Oraguzie , Washington State University, Prosser, WA
Audio File Recorded Presentation
Sweetness and acidity are important fruit quality traits that drive consumer acceptability of sweet cherry. Developing new sweet cherry cultivars with superior flavor attributes is a major objective in fruit breeding programs. This study was designed to facilitate development of new cultivars with exceptional taste characteristics through the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with soluble solids content (SSC) and titratable acidity (TA) in sweet cherry. A total of 601 pedigree-linked individuals including founders, commercial cultivars, breeding parents and their F1 progeny seedlings were used. The five largest fruit from each individual were selected at commercial maturity for SSC measurement. Juice from a bulk sample of 25 fruit was used for TA measurement. Both SSC and TA data were collected in 2010, 2011 and 2012. One thousand and ninety one (1091) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers on the Infinium array of a total of 6000 SNPs along with four simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were used to provide genome-wide markers for determining marker-locus-trait associations. The FlexQTL™ software was used to integrate both the phenotypic and genotypic data sets to identify QTL underlying SSC and TA. Two major QTL associated with SSC were identified, one on linkage group (LG) 2 and the other on LG 4, with a minor QTL on LG 7. The QTL on LG 2 was mapped between 14.1 cM and 22.8 cM region in 2011 and between 19.1 cM and 25.9 cM in 2012 on the ‘Texas’ (almond) × ‘Earlygold’ (peach) (T × E) Prunus reference map. The QTL on LG 4 was mapped between 3.1 cM and 11.0 cM in 2012 but was absent in 2011. The minor SSC QTL on LG 7 was detected between 44.1 cM and 56.3 cM in 2011 but was absent in 2012. No QTL were identified in 2010. The QTL for TA were found on LG 2, LG 4 and LG 6. The QTL on LG 2 was identified in 2010, and mapped at 22.8-48.6 cM. In 2011, the QTL identified on LG 4 was mapped between 3 cM and 34 cM. In 2012, two QTL were detected on LG 4 and LG 6 and mapped at 0-13.5 cM and 71.6-82.0 cM, respectively. The haplotypes for these QTL are discussed in relation to breeding for SSC and TA in sweet cherry.
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