Abstract
Petunia is a very important flower in the global floriculture industry and has played a critical role as a model in plant genetic studies. Owing to limited genetic variability in commercial germplasm, development of novel petunia phenotypes and new varieties has become increasingly difficult. To enrich petunia germplasm and facilitate genetic improvement, it is important to explore genetic variation in progenitor species that may contain highly valuable genes/alleles. In this study, an interspecific recombinant inbred population (168 recombinant inbreds) derived from Petunia integrifolia × P. axillaris were phenotyped for days to anthesis (DTA), flower count (Flower_C), flower diameter (Flower_D), flower length (Flower_L), plant height (Plant_H), plant spread (Plant_S), and plant size (Plant_Z) in 2014 and 2015. Transgressive segregation was observed for all traits in both years. The broad-sense heritability on a 2-year basis varied from 0.38 (Flower_C) to 0.82 (Flower_L). Ten QTL were consistently identified in both years and by two mapping strategies [multiple QTL mapping (MQM) in MapQTL and inclusive composite interval mapping (ICIM) in IciMapping]. Major QTL explained up to 30.2, 35.5, and 47.1% of the total phenotypic variation for Plant_S, Flower_L, and Flower_D, respectively. These findings should be of significant values for introgression of desirable genes from wild petunias into commercial varieties and future genetic improvement of this important flower.
Highlights
Cultivated flowers serve a very important role in human life and health, the global economy, and the beautification and protection of the environment
Significant phenotypic variation was observed for all seven traits (DTA, Flower_C, Flower_D, Flower_L, plant height (Plant_H), plant spread (Plant_S), and plant size (Plant_Z)) in the F7 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) population derived from the cross between P. integrifolia and P. axillaris (Table 1 and Fig. 3)
All traits exhibited certain degrees of transgressive segregation in the RIL population. These results suggest that P. axillaris and P. integrifolia possess a very different genetic background
Summary
Cultivated flowers serve a very important role in human life and health, the global economy, and the beautification and protection of the environment. Flower production has become one of the most dynamic and sophisticated sectors of the global horticulture industry. It was estimated that the worldwide production value of cultivated flowers or floricultural production reached 60 billion dollars in 20031. Further growth has occurred in almost every continent. It is projected that the global floriculture market will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.4% over the period from 2016 to 20202. To sustain the global flower production industry, continuous introduction of new cultivars with improved or novel characteristics is essential.
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