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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Salinas, California » Crop Improvement and Protection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #327768
Title: Population structure and association analysis of bolting, plant height, and leaf erectness in spinach

Author
item CHITWOOD, JESSICA - University Of Arkansas
item SHI, AINONG - University Of Arkansas
item Mou, Beiquan
item EVANS, MICHAEL - University Of Arkansas
item CLARK, JOHN - University Of Arkansas
item MOTES, DENNIS - University Of Arkansas
item CHEN, PENGYIN - University Of Arkansas
item HENSLEY, DAVID - University Of Arkansas

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/28/2016
Publication Date: 6/9/2016
Citation: Chitwood, J., Shi, A., Mou, B., Evans, M., Clark, J., Motes, D., Chen, P., Hensley, D. 2016. Population structure and association analysis of bolting, plant height, and leaf erectness in spinach. HortScience. 51:481-486.

Interpretive Summary: Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is an important vegetable worldwide with high nutritional and health-promoting compounds. Bolting is an important trait to consider in order to grow spinach in different seasons and regions. Plant height and leaf erectness are important traits for machine-harvesting. Slower-bolting, taller and more erect spinach cultivars are needed for improved spinach production. A total of 288 USDA spinach accessions were used in this research. Molecular markers were discovered through sequencing of spinach genome. Three markers, AYZV01001038_398, AYZV01031624_1060, and AYZV01088923_95 were found to be associated with bolting. Eight markers, AYZV01011130_540, AYZV01180397_2162, AYZV01069590_19842, AYZV01105690_376, AYZV01058838_64, AYZV01152613_2532, AYZV01113619_2197, and AYZV01003134_248 were associated with plant height. Four markers, AYZV01137843_229, AYZV01158294_79, AYZV01023368_256, and AYZV01097131_197 were associated with erectness. These molecular markers may provide breeders with a tool in spinach molecular breeding to select spinach bolting, plant height and erectness through marker-assisted selection.

Technical Abstract: Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is an important vegetable worldwide with high nutritional and health-promoting compounds. Bolting is an important trait to consider in order to grow spinach in different seasons and regions. Plant height and leaf erectness are important traits for machine-harvesting. Breeding slow-bolting, taller and more erect spinach cultivars is needed for improved spinach production. A total of 288 USDA spinach accessions were used as the association panel in this research. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered through genotyping by sequencing (GBS) were used for genotyping. Two structured populations and the admixtures were inferred for the 288-accession spinach panel using STRUTURE and MEGA. Association mapping was conducted using single marker regression (SMR), general linear model (GLM), and mixed linear model (MLM) built in TASSEL. Three SNP markers, AYZV01001038_398, AYZV01031624_1060, and AYZV01088923_95 were found to be associated with bolting. Eight SNP markers, AYZV01011130_540, AYZV01180397_2162, AYZV01069590_19842, AYZV01105690_376, AYZV01058838_64, AYZV01152613_2532, AYZV01113619_2197, and AYZV01003134_248 were associated with plant height. Four SNP markers, AYZV01137843_229, AYZV01158294_79, AYZV01023368_256, and AYZV01097131_197 were associated with erectness. These SNP markers may provide breeders with a tool in spinach molecular breeding to select spinach bolting, plant height and erectness through marker-assisted selection.