Abstract
Introgression lines (ILs) of eggplant (Solanum melongena) represent a resource of high value for breeding and the genetic analysis of important traits. We have conducted a phenotypic evaluation in two environments (open field and screenhouse) of 16 ILs from the first set of eggplant ILs developed so far. Each of the ILs carries a single marker-defined chromosomal segment from the wild eggplant relative S. incanum (accession MM577) in the genetic background of S. melongena (accession AN-S-26). Seventeen agronomic traits were scored to test the performance of ILs compared to the recurrent parent and of identifying QTLs for the investigated traits. Significant morphological differences were found between parents, and the hybrid was heterotic for vigour-related traits. Despite the presence of large introgressed fragments from a wild exotic parent, individual ILs did not display differences with respect to the recipient parent for most traits, although significant genotype × environment interaction (G × E ) was detected for most traits. Heritability values for the agronomic traits were generally low to moderate. A total of ten stable QTLs scattered across seven chromosomes was detected. For five QTLs, the S. incanum introgression was associated with higher mean values for plant- and flower-related traits, including vigour prickliness and stigma length. For one flower- and four fruit-related-trait QTLs, including flower peduncle and fruit pedicel lengths and fruit weight, the S. incanum introgression was associated with lower mean values for fruit-related traits. Evidence of synteny to other previously reported in eggplant populations was found for three of the fruit-related QTLs. The other seven stable QTLs are new, demonstrating that eggplant ILs are of great interest for eggplant breeding under different environments.
Highlights
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L., Solanaceae; 2n = 2x = 24) ranks fifth among all vegetables and second, after tomato, among Solanaceae vegetables in global production [1]
Significant differences (p < 0.05) between the recipient parent (S. melongena AN-S-26) and the donor parent (S. incanum MM577) of the Introgression lines (ILs) population were found for all the traits in both environments, except for leaf blade lobing (LBL), in which no differences were detected for any of the environments, and for plant height (PH) and leaf chlorophyll concentration (LCC), for which significant differences were observed only in the open field (Table 3 and Supplementary data S1)
In agreement with previous works [14,23,68], we found that the hybrid was in general heterotic for vigour traits, suggesting that this is a common phenomenon in interspecific hybrids between eggplant and its wild relatives
Summary
Solanum incanum is a wild species naturally distributed in desertic and dryland areas from northern Africa to Pakistan that belongs to the secondary genepool of common eggplant [17,18]. The interest in this species lies in its drought tolerance [19,20], high content of bioactive phenolic compounds [21,22,23,24], and resistance to some diseases [25,26]. S. incanum has been used for a plethora of breeding and genetic studies [6,24,27,28,29,30,31]
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