Abstract
BackgroundAllelic variation underlying the quantitative traits in plants is caused by the extremely complex regulation process. Tree peony originated in China is a peculiar ornamental, medicinal and oil woody plant. Paeonia rockii, one of tree peony species, is a precious emerging woody oil crop. However, in this valuable plant, the study of functional loci associated with yield traits has rarely been identified. Therefore, to explore the genetic architecture of 24 yield quantitative traits, the association mapping was first reported in 420 unrelated cultivated P. rockii individuals based on the next-generation sequencing (NGS) and single-molecule long-read sequencing (SMLRS).ResultsThe developed 58 pairs of polymorphic expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers from 959 candidate transcription factors (TFs) associated with yield were used for genotyping the 420 P. rockii accessions. We observed a high level of genetic diversity (polymorphic information content, PIC = 0.514) and low linkage disequilibrium (LD) between EST-SSRs. Moreover, four subpopulations in the association population were revealed by STRUCTURE analyses. Further, single-marker association analysis identified 141 significant associations, involving 17 quantitative traits and 41 EST-SSRs. These loci were mainly from AP2, TCP, MYB, HSF, bHLH, GATA, and B3 gene families and showed a small proportion of the phenotypic variance (3.79 to 37.45%).ConclusionsOur results summarize a valuable collection of functional loci associated with yield traits in P. rockii, and provide a precious resource that reveals allelic variation underlying quantitative traits in Paeonia and other woody oil crops.
Highlights
Allelic variation underlying the quantitative traits in plants is caused by the extremely complex regulation process
Distribution and statistics of phenotypic traits in the association population In this study, multiple methods were used to conduct descriptive statistics on phenotypic traits and determine the traits affecting the yield of P. rockii
For the association mapping in P. rockii, we first constructed an association population consisting of 420 individuals
Summary
Allelic variation underlying the quantitative traits in plants is caused by the extremely complex regulation process. Tree peony originated in China is a peculiar ornamental, medicinal and oil woody plant. One of tree peony species, is a precious emerging woody oil crop. In this valuable plant, the study of functional loci associated with yield traits has rarely been identified. Woody oil crops are economically essential crops globally because of their high oil content in their seeds and/ or fruits, strong resistance, and stable yield. They have become the critical source for human edible oil, lubricants, biodiesel, cosmetics, paint and other industries [1, 2]. The better strategies of genetic architecture in the yield traits of P. rockii will be required to shorten the breeding cycle and improve the production value effectively
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