Genome-wide association studies in apple reveal loci of large effect controlling apple polyphenols

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41438-019-0190-y

Language of the publication
English
Date
2019-09-07
Type
Article
Author(s)
  • McClure, Kendra A.
  • Gong, YuiHui
  • Song, Jun
  • Vinqvist-Tymchuk, Melinda
  • Campbell Palmer, Leslie
  • Fan, Lihua
  • Burgher-MacLellan, Karen
  • Zhang, ZhaoQi
  • Celton, Jean-Marc
  • Forney, Charles F.
  • Migicovsky, Zoë
  • Myles, Sean
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group

Abstract

Apples are a nutritious food source with significant amounts of polyphenols that contribute to human health and wellbeing, primarily as dietary antioxidants. Although numerous pre- and post-harvest factors can affect the composition of polyphenols in apples, genetics is presumed to play a major role because polyphenol concentration varies dramatically among apple cultivars. Here we investigated the genetic architecture of apple polyphenols by combining high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) data with ~100,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from two diverse apple populations. We found that polyphenols can vary in concentration by up to two orders of magnitude across cultivars, and that this dramatic variation was often predictable using genetic markers and frequently controlled by a small number of large effect genetic loci. Using GWAS, we identified candidate genes for the production of quercitrin, epicatechin, catechin, chlorogenic acid, 4-O-caffeoylquinic acid and procyanidins B1, B2, and C1. Our observation that a relatively simple genetic architecture underlies the dramatic variation of key polyphenols in apples suggests that breeders may be able to improve the nutritional value of apples through marker-assisted breeding or gene editing.

Subject

  • Agriculture

Keywords

  • Apples--Breeding,
  • Plant polyphenols,
  • Pommier--Amélioration,
  • Polyphénols végétaux

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Pagination

1-12

Peer review

Yes

Open access level

Gold

Identifiers

ISSN
2052-7276

Article

Journal title
Horticulture Research
Journal volume
6
Article number
107
Accepted date
2019-07-24
Submitted date
2019-05-03

Citation(s)

McClure, K. A., Gong, Y., Song, J., Vinqvist-Tymchuk, M., Campbell Palmer, L., Fan, L., Burgher-MacLellan, K., Zhang, Z., Celton, J.-M., Forney, C. F., Migicovsky, Z., & Myles, S, (2019). Genome-wide association studies in apple reveal loci of large effect controlling apple polyphenols. Horticulture Research, 6, Article 107. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41438-019-0190-y

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Crops and horticulture

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