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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional and Applied Plant Genomics
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1433436

Comprehensive genetic diversity and genome-wide association studies revealed the genetic basis of avocado fruit quality traits. Genetic diversity and fruit quality traits in avocado cultivars

Provisionally accepted
Jin Li Jin Li Shamseldeen Eltaher Shamseldeen Eltaher Barbie Freeman Barbie Freeman Sukhwinder Singh Sukhwinder Singh Gul S. Ali Gul S. Ali *
  • Subtropical Horticulture Research Station, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), Miami, United States

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

    Avocado (Persea americana) is a highly nutritious fruit gaining popularity worldwide. However, its cultivation is currently reliant on a limited number of cultivars with limited genetic diversity. This situation calls for the development of new avocado cultivars with improved horticultural, fruit quality, and nutritional traits, as well as resistance to diseases and pests, and adaptability to changing climatic conditions. The potential of marker-assisted selection in accelerating the development of new avocado varieties offers a ray of hope for the future of avocado cultivation, promising a brighter and more diverse avocado market. This report investigated the genetic diversity and population structure of a diversity panel of 110 avocado accessions. We also conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) targeting nine fruit-quality traits using 4,706 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with two different models: GLM (PCA) and MLM (PCA + K). Our analysis revealed three distinct populations, each corresponding to one of the three avocado ecotypes. Phylogenetic analysis showed a close relationship between the Guatemalan and West Indian races, compared to the Mexican race among the selected accessions, supported by population pairwise FST analysis. GWAS identified 12 markers within 11 genomic regions strongly associated with fruit quality traits, including fruit color, shape, taste, and skin texture. Variation explained by these markers ranged from 14.84% to 43.96%, with an average of 24.63%. Annotation analyses of these genomic regions unveiled candidate genes responsible for controlling these traits. These findings improved our understanding of genetic diversity and population structure in avocado germplasm and provided valuable insights into the underlying genetic basis of fruit quality traits. These could significantly impact breeding and parent selection efforts to improve avocado cultivars.

    Keywords: Avocado germplasm, Genomic Diversity, population structure, SNP markers, genomewide association study (GWAS), Fruit quality traits

    Received: 15 May 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Eltaher, Freeman, Singh and Ali. 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: Gul S. Ali, Subtropical Horticulture Research Station, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), Miami, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.