Genotype-by-environment and QTL-by-environment interactions in sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) for flowering date

Camille Branchereau; Craig Hardner; Elisabeth Dirlewanger; Bénédicte Wenden; Loïck Le Dantec; David Alletru; Julien Parmentier; Anton Ivančič; Daniela Giovannini; Federica Brandi; Gregorio Lopez-Ortega; Federico Garcia-Montiel; Bénédicte Quilot-Turion; José Quero-García

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1142974

Genotype-by-environment and QTL-by-environment interactions in sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) for flowering date

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Mar 2:14:1142974. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1142974. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ INRAE, Univ. Bordeaux, Unité Mixte de Recherche Biologie du Fruit et Pathologie (UMR BFP), Villenave d'Ornon, France.
² Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
³ INRAE, Unité Expérimentale (UE) 0393, Unité Expérimentale Arboricole, Toulenne, France.
⁴ Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Maribor, Hoce, Slovenia.
⁵ Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria (CREA), Research Centre for Olive, Fruit and Citrus Crops, Forli, Italy.
⁶ Atlantic Green, Ctra. Almonde El Rocio, Huelva, Spain.
⁷ Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Alimentario (IMIDA), Instituto Murciano de Investigación, y Desarrollo Agrario y Alimentario, Murcia, Spain.
⁸ INRAE, Unité de Recherche (UR) 1052 GAFL, Montfavet, France.

Abstract

In sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.), flowering date is strongly dependent on the environment conditions and, therefore, is a trait of major interest for adaptation to climate change. Such trait can be influenced by genotype-by-environment interaction (G×E), that refers to differences in the response of genotypes to different environments. If not taken into account, G×E can reduce selection accuracy and overall genetic gain. However, little is known about G×E in fruit tree species. Flowering date is a highly heritable and polygenic trait for which many quantitative trait loci (QTLs) have been identified. As for the overall genetic performance, differential expression of QTLs in response to environment (QTL-by-environment interaction, QTL×E) can occur. The present study is based on the analysis of a multi-environment trial (MET) suitable for the study of G×E and QTL×E in sweet cherry. It consists of a sweet cherry F₁ full-sib family (n = 121) derived from the cross between cultivars 'Regina' and 'Lapins' and planted in two copies in five locations across four European countries (France, Italy, Slovenia and Spain) covering a large range of climatic conditions. The aim of this work was to study the effect of the environment on flowering date and estimate G×E, to carry QTL detection in different environments in order to study the QTL stability across environments and to estimate QTL×E. A strong effect of the environment on flowering date and its genetic control was highlighted. Two large-effect and environment-specific QTLs with significant QTL×E were identified on linkage groups (LGs) 1 and 4. This work gives new insights into the effect of the environment on a trait of main importance in one of the most economically important fruit crops in temperate regions. Moreover, molecular markers were developed for flowering date and a strategy consisting in using specific markers for warm or cold regions was proposed to optimize marker-assisted selection (MAS) in sweet cherry breeding programs.

Keywords: QTL; QTL-by-environment interactions; flowering; genotype-by-environment interactions; sweet cherry.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the “Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine” in the project “CerGEn” reference 20181R20203, number 00019006. INRAE BAP division and the “Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine” co-funded the PhD scholarship of CB. This study received financial support from the French government in the framework of the IdEX Bordeaux University “Investments for the Future” program/GPR Bordeaux Plant Sciences.