An Upgraded, Highly Saturated Linkage Map of Japanese Plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.), and Identification of a New Major Locus Controlling the Flavan-3-ol Composition in Fruits

Abstract

Japanese plum fruits are rich in phenolic compounds, such as anthocyanins and flavan-3-ols, whose contents vary significantly among cultivars. Catechin (C) and epicatechin (EC) are flavan-3-ol monomers described in the fruits of this species and are associated with bitterness, astringency, antioxidant capacity, and susceptibility to enzymatic mesocarp browning. In this study, we aimed to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with the content of flavan-3-ol in Japanese plum fruits. We evaluated the content of C and EC in the mesocarp and exocarp of samples from 79 and 64 seedlings of an F1 progeny (<‘98–99’ × ‘Angeleno’>) in the first and second seasons, respectively. We also constructed improved versions of linkage maps from ‘98–99’ and ‘Angeleno,’ presently called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) after mapping the already available GBS reads to Prunus salicina Lindl. cv. ‘Sanyueli’ v2.0 reference genome. These data allowed for describing a cluster of QTLs in the cultivar, ‘Angeleno,’ associated with the flavan-3-ol composition of mesocarp and exocarp, which explain up to 100% of the C/EC ratio. Additionally, we developed a C/EC metabolic marker, which was mapped between the markers with the highest log of odds (LOD) scores detected by the QTL analysis. The C/EC locus was located in the LG1, at an interval spanning 0.70 cM at 108.30–108.90 cM. Our results suggest the presence of a novel major gene controlling the preferential synthesis of C or EC in the Japanese plum fruits. This study is a significant advance in understanding the regulation of synthesizing compounds associated with fruit quality, postharvest, and human health promotion.

A high-density linkage map construction in guava (Psidium guajava L.) using genotyping by sequencing and identification of QTLs for leaf, peel, and pulp color in an intervarietal mapping population

“…GBS has become a cost-effective approach for genotyping large numbers of samples, especially the mapping populations that are required for constructing linkage maps. GBS has been employed for constructing genetic linkage maps in several fruit tree species including apple ( Oh et al., 2023 ), Japanese plum ( Battistoni et al., 2022 ), Korean pears ( Han et al., 2019 ), banana ( Sampangi-Ramaiah et al., 2023 ) and in the guava’s closest related species eucalyptus ( Zhu et al., 2023 ). In our study, GBS has been applied for the first time in SNP calling in guava mapping populations which enabled us to identify 119,343 SNPs in both parents and hybrids.…”

Vaccinium as a comparative system for understanding of complex flavonoid accumulation profiles and regulation in fruit

“…The studies reported here for blueberry and cranberry add to a list of works on the genetic control of flavonoid content in fruit crops, mostly in species belonging to the family Rosaceae, such as strawberry ( Labadie et al 2020 , Pott et al 2020 ), peach ( Prunus persica ; Abdelghafar et al 2020 ), Asian plum ( Prunus salicina ; Valderrama-Soto et al 2021 ; Battistoni et al 2022 ), sweet cherry ( Prunus avium ; Calle et al 2021 ), and apple ( Kumar et al 2022 ). Such studies probably have been boosted by the recent improvements in flavonoid identification and quantification methodologies and the increased interest around their beneficial health properties.…”