Genome-Wide Association in Tomato Reveals 44 Candidate Loci for Fruit Metabolic Traits. Issue 3 (3rd June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sauvage, Christopher; Segura, Vincent; Bauchet, Guillaume; Stevens, Rebecca; Do, Phuc Thi; Nikoloski, Zoran; Fernie, Alisdair R.; Causse, Mathilde
• Is Part Of: Plant physiology. Volume 165:Issue 3(2014)
• Page Start: 1120
• Page End: 1132
• Publication Date: 2014-06-03
• Subjects: Plant physiology -- Periodicals; Botany -- Periodicals; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 571.2
• DOI: 10.1104/pp.114.241521
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0032-0889

Abstract

Abstract : Genome-wide association sheds light on the genetic architecture of metabolic traits underlying fruit quality in tomato . Abstract: Genome-wide association studies have been successful in identifying genes involved in polygenic traits and are valuable for crop improvement. Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) is a major crop and is highly appreciated worldwide for its health value. We used a core collection of 163 tomato accessions composed of S. lycopersicum, S. lycopersicum var cerasiforme, and Solanum pimpinellifolium to map loci controlling variation in fruit metabolites. Fruits were phenotyped for a broad range of metabolites, including amino acids, sugars, and ascorbate. In parallel, the accessions were genotyped with 5, 995 single-nucleotide polymorphism markers spread over the whole genome. Genome-wide association analysis was conducted on a large set of metabolic traits that were stable over 2 years using a multilocus mixed model as a general method for mapping complex traits in structured populations and applied to tomato. We detected a total of 44 loci that were significantly associated with a total of 19 traits, including sucrose, ascorbate, malate, and citrate levels. These results not only provide a list of candidate loci to be functionally validated but also a powerful analytical approach for finding genetic variants that can be directly used for crop improvement and deciphering the genetic architecture of complex traits.