Inheritance of the Easy-peeling Pellicle Trait of Japanese Chestnut Cultivar Porotan

Abstract

<jats:p>‘Porotan’ is a Japanese chestnut cultivar (<jats:italic>Castanea crenata</jats:italic> Sieb. et Zucc.) that was selected from offspring of the cross 550-40 × ‘Tanzawa’ and released in 2006. Its nut is distinguished by a pellicle that is easy to peel after roasting; previously, all Japanese chestnut cultivars were thought to have a pellicle that was difficult to peel. Both 550-40 and ‘Tanzawa’ are Japanese chestnuts, and 550-40 is a selection descended from ‘Tanzawa’. Both 550-40 and ‘Tanzawa’ have a pellicle that is difficult to peel. Among 59 offspring of a cross of 550-40 × ‘Tanzawa’, 12 had an easy-peeling pellicle and 47 had a difficult-peeling pellicle; this ratio is not significantly different from the 1:3 expected ratio for monogenic inheritance based on a chi-square test at <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.05. A half-diallel cross without selfings was made among ‘Porotan’, ‘Tanzawa’, and ‘Tsukuba’. All the offspring from ‘Tanzawa’ × ‘Tsukuba’ and from ‘Tsukuba’ × ‘Porotan’ had a difficult-peeling pellicle; in contrast, 39 offspring from ‘Tanzawa’ × ‘Porotan’ segregated in a ratio of 19 difficult-peeling pellicle to 20 easy-peeling pellicle, which is not significantly different from the expected 1:1 ratio for monogenic segregation based on a chi-square test at <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.05. These results suggest that the easy-peeling pellicle trait of ‘Porotan’ is controlled by a major recessive gene at a single locus. We designated the pellicle peelability locus as <jats:italic>P</jats:italic>/<jats:italic>p</jats:italic>. According to this model, the ‘Tsukuba’ genotype is homozygous-dominant (<jats:italic>PP</jats:italic>), the ‘Tanzawa’ genotype is heterozygous (<jats:italic>Pp</jats:italic>), and the ‘Porotan’ genotype is homozygous-recessive (<jats:italic>pp</jats:italic>).</jats:p>

Environmental Variance and Broad-sense Heritability of Nut Traits in Japanese Chestnut Breeding

“…Simultaneously, large nut weight, the absence of PS, and freedom from II by the peach moth, Conogethes punctiferalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), are also important targets. The easily peeled pellicle trait in Japanese chestnut is controlled by a major gene at a single locus (Takada et al, 2012). Molecular markers associated with this trait are now being used in applied chestnut breeding programs (Nishio et al, 2013).…”

Evaluation of the Antioxidant Activity, Deodorizing Effect, and Antibacterial Activity of ‘Porotan’ Chestnut By-Products and Establishment of a Compound Paper

“…However, the existing Japanese varieties of chestnuts are difficult to peel, and the bioactivity of the inner bark of trees have not been investigated. The shell and inner skin of the variety 'Porotan', cultivated in Japan, can be peeled extremely well [15,16]; therefore, the inner skin can be used as a by-product after the processing of chestnut kernels. In this study, we aimed to utilize the unused parts of chestnuts for food and industrial applications and analyzed the functionality (polyphenol content, antioxidant activity, anti-bacterial activity and deodorizing activity) of the chestnut burs (green and brown), leaves, shells, inner skin, and kernel.…”

Signatures of Selection in the Genomes of Chinese Chestnut (Castanea mollissima Blume): The Roots of Nut Tree Domestication

“…Characteristics currently under selection in improvement programs for Chinese orchard chestnuts include attractive (shiny) appearance of nuts, early maturation and bearing, stable yield, high sugar content, pest and disease resistance, and adaptation to orchard environments that are hotter and drier than the mountains where most wild C. mollissima occur (Zhang et al, 2010 ). Shorter catkins are also desired (Huang et al, 2009 ), as are large seeds (~20 g) (Xu et al, 2010 ), especially for commercial paste-production cultivars, and a pellicle that is easy to peel (Takada et al, 2012 ). Post-harvest diseases that destroy chestnuts in storage are a major concern (Ma et al, 2000 ).…”