Genetic Diversity and Association Analysis for Bolting, Tallness, and Erectness in Spinach

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L., 2n=2x=12) is an economically important vegetable crop worldwide. The objective of this research is to conduct association analysis for tallness, erectness, and bolting in spinach. 298 USDA spinach germplasm accessions were used as an association panel in this study and were genotyped using genotyping by sequencing (GBS). 4077 SNPs identified from GBS data were used for the association study using TASSEL 5 and GAPIT. 13 SNPs were identified to be associated with bolting with P value < 0.0001 (LOD > 4.0) and R2 > 6.6%; 19 SNPs associated with tallness P < 0.0001 (LOD > 4.0) and R2 > 6.1%; and 28 SNPs associated with erectness with P < 0.0001 (LOD > 4.0) and R2 > 8.1. After validation of these SNP markers in a larger spinach panel, the validated SNP markers can be used in spinach molecular breeding through marker-assisted selection. This research will provide SNP markers for molecular breeding and genetic diversity information for selecting parents in spinach breeding programs.