The cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oilseed crop worldwide, and fatty acid composition is a major determinant of peanut oil quality. In the present study, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for nine fatty acid traits using the whole genome sequences of 160 representative Chinese peanut landraces and identified 6-1195 significant SNPs for different fatty acid contents. Particularly for oleic acid and linoleic acid, two peak SNP clusters on Arahy.09 and Arahy.19 were found to contain the majority of the significant SNPs associated with these two fatty acids. Additionally, a significant proportion of the candidate genes identified on Arahy.09 overlap with those identified in early studies, among which three candidate genes are of special interest. One possesses a significant missense SNP and encodes a known candidate gene FAD2A. The second gene is the gene closest to the most significant SNP for linoleic acid. It codes for an MYB protein that has been demonstrated to impact fatty acid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. The third gene harbors a missense SNP and encodes a JmjC domain-containing protein. The significant phenotypic difference in the oleic acid/linoleic acid between the genotypes at the first and third candidate genes was further confirmed with PARMS analysis. In addition, we have also identified different candidate genes (i.e., Arahy.ZV39IJ, Arahy.F9E3EA, Arahy.X9ZZC1, and Arahy.Z0ELT9) for the remaining fatty acids. Our findings can help us gain a better understanding of the genetic foundation of peanut fatty acid contents and may hold great potential for enhancing peanut quality in the future.
Keywords: GC-MS; GWAS; PARMS; fatty acids; peanut oil.