QTL analysis of early flowering of female flowers in zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.)
2022
QU, Shu-ping | Yang, Dan | Yu, Hai-Yang | CHEN, Fang-yuan | WANG, Ke-xin | DING, Wen-qi | XU, Wen-long | WANG, Yun-li
Early flowering promotes early maturity and production, and the capacity to counteract biotic and abiotic stresses, making it an important agronomic trait in zucchini. In the present study, the zucchini inbred line ‘19’ showed significantly fewer days to blooming of the first female flower (DFF) than the inbred line ‘113’, which showed stable early flowering. Genetic analysis revealed that DFF is an inheritable quantitative trait and is controlled by multiple genes. Based on the strategy of quantitative trait locus (QTL) sequencing (QTL-seq) combined with linkage analysis, 3 QTLs for DFF were identified on chromosomes 4, 11 and 20. To validate these results, additional F₂ populations grown under different environmental conditions were used for QTL mapping analysis of DFF with insertion/deletion (InDel) markers. Using the composite interval mapping (CIM) method of R/qtl software, only one major locus was identified under all environmental conditions and was located in a 117-kb candidate region on chromosome 20. Based on gene annotation, gene sequence alignment and qRT–PCR analysis, we found that the Cp4.1LG20g08050 gene encoding a RING finger protein may be a candidate gene for the opposite regulation of early flowering in zucchini. In summary, these results lay a foundation for better understanding early flowering, and improving early flowering-based breeding strategies in zucchini.
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