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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Breeding
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1390936

An ultra-dense linkage map identified quantitative trait loci corresponding to fruit quality-and size-related traits in red goji berry

Provisionally accepted
Fazal Rehman Fazal Rehman 1Haiguang Gong Haiguang Gong 1Yun Ma Yun Ma 1Shaohua Zeng Shaohua Zeng 1*Danmin Ke Danmin Ke 1Chao Yang Chao Yang 1Yuling Zhao Yuling Zhao 2Ying Wang Ying Wang 1*
  • 1 South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 2 Jinghe County Goji Industrial Development Center, Xinjiang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Goji berries are a small-fruited shrub with industrial importance whose fruit considered beneficial in both fresh and dried forms. Current germplasms of goji berries include small fruits with a short shelf life, less sweet and bitter taste, and lack of appropriate genetic information. Whole genome resequencing was employed to generate an ultra-dense bin linkage map of the goji berry, which spanned a total length of 966.42 cM and an average bin interval of 0.03 cM. Subsequent variant calling and ordering resulted in 3,058 bins containing 35,331 polymorphic markers across the 12 chromosomes. Human sensory tests were carried out to determine the bitter taste (BT) and sweet taste (ST), and quantification of soluble solid content (SSC), fruit firmness (FF), and fruit size-related traits of fresh goji fruits over three or four years. To elucidate the genetic basis of goji fruit quality and size/weight, quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping analysis was performed in a cross-pollinated hybrid interspecific population. A total of 99 QTLs, with individual loci in different environments explaining a phenotypic variance of 1.21-16.95% were identified for the studied traits. Ten major effects, including colocalized QTLs corresponding to different traits, were identified on chromosomes 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8, with a maximum Logarithm of Odds (LOD) of 29.25 and 16.95% of explained phenotypic variance (PVE). In addition, four stable loci, one for FF, one for fruit weight (FW), and two for fruit shape index (FSI), were mainly mapped on chromosomes 5, 6, and 7, elucidating 2.10-16.95% PVE. These findings provide valuable insights into the genetic architecture of goji fruit traits along with identified loci and markers to further improve and develop sweet and larger fruited goji berry cultivars with longer shelf-life.

    Keywords: Lycium, bitterness and sweetness, Soluble solid content, QTL mapping, fruit size/weight, Whole genome resequencing

    Received: 24 Feb 2024; Accepted: 01 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rehman, Gong, Ma, Zeng, Ke, Yang, Zhao and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Shaohua Zeng, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guangzhou, 510650, Guangdong Province, China
    Ying Wang, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guangzhou, 510650, Guangdong Province, China

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