GWAS with principal component analysis identify QTLs associated with main peanut flavor-related traits

Hui Zhang; Lisa Dean; Ming Li Wang; Phat Dang; Marshall Lamb; Charles Chen

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1204415

GWAS with principal component analysis identify QTLs associated with main peanut flavor-related traits

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Sep 15:14:1204415. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1204415. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hui Zhang^{1

2}, Lisa Dean³, Ming Li Wang⁴, Phat Dang⁵, Marshall Lamb⁵, Charles Chen²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Crop Science and Technology, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
² Department of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States.
³ USDA-ARS Food Science and Market Quality and Handling Research Unit, Raleigh, NC, United States.
⁴ US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service Plant Genetic Resources Conservation, Griffin, GA, United States.
⁵ US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service National Peanut Research Laboratory, Dawson, GA, United States.

Abstract

Peanut flavor is a complex and important trait affected by raw material and processing technology owing to its significant impact on consumer preference. In this research, principal component analysis (PCA) on 33 representative traits associated with flavor revealed that total sugars, sucrose, and total tocopherols provided more information related to peanut flavor. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using 102 U.S. peanut mini-core accessions were performed to study associations between 12,526 single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) markers and the three traits. A total of 7 and 22 significant quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were identified to be significantly associated with total sugars and sucrose, respectively. Among these QTLs, four and eight candidate genes for the two traits were mined. In addition, two and five stable QTLs were identified for total sugars and sucrose in both years separately. No significant QTLs were detected for total tocopherols. The results from this research provide useful knowledge about the genetic control of peanut flavor, which will aid in clarifying the molecular mechanisms of flavor research in peanuts.

Keywords: GWAS; PCA; QTL; flavor; peanuts.

Grants and funding

This project was supported by the “Double first-class discipline promotion project” of South China Agricultural University (grant number 2021B10564001) and The Peanut Research Foundation (grant number 04-833-17).