A High Resolution Melting Analysis-Based Genotyping Toolkit for the Peach (Prunus persica) Chilling Requirement
Journal
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Journal Volume
21
Journal Issue
4
Date Issued
2020
Author(s)
Abstract
The chilling requirement (CR) is the main factor controlling the peach floral bud break and subsequent reproductive growth. To date, several peach CR quantitative trait loci (QTLs) have been identified. To improve the accessibility and convenience of this genetic information for peach breeders, the aim of this study was to establish an easy-to-use genotype screening system using peach CR molecular markers as a toolkit for marker-assisted selection. Here, we integrated 22 CR-associated markers from three published QTLs and positioned them on the Prunus persica physical map. Then, we built a PCR-based genotyping platform by using high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis with specific primers and trained this platform with 27 peach cultivars. Due to ambiguous variant calls from a commercial HRM software, we developed an R-based pipeline using principal component analysis (PCA) to accurately differentiate genotypes. Based on the PCA results, this toolkit was able to determine the genotypes at the CR-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in all tested peach cultivars. In this study, we showed that this HRM-PCA pipeline served as a low-cost, high-throughput, and non-gel genotyping solution. This system has great potential to accelerate CR-focused peach breeding.
Subjects
chilling requirement (CR); genotyping; high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis; marker-assisted selection (MAS); principal component analysis (PCA); quantitative trait loci (QTLs); single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)
Type
journal article