Chilling injury susceptibility in an intra-specific peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] progeny

Abstract

Chilling injury (CI) is the collective term for various disorders that occur during prolonged cold storage and/or after subsequent ripening of stone fruit. Major symptoms of CI include mealiness, graininess, flesh browning, loss of flavour (off flavour), and red pigmentation (bleeding). These symptoms were evaluated over 2 years in an intra-specific progeny population derived from the cross of cultivars 'Venus' (freestone, melting, yellow-flesh nectarine) and 'BigTop' (clingstone, melting, yellow-flesh nectarine) after storage of fruit at 5 ºC (CI inducing conditions) for 2 and 4 weeks. All the evaluated traits in the progeny showed continuous variation which is typical of quantitative or polygenic inheritance. Longer cold storage periods increased the incidence and severity of CI symptoms, except for bleeding and leatheriness which were not affected by time of storage. CI symptoms showed high and significant heritability or genotype effect in the studied population, with no significant effect of harvesting year. Browning, mealiness and graininess were significantly correlated and were the main CI symptoms observed in this population. Mealiness and graininess were negatively correlated with stone adhesion which reflects the higher susceptibilty to CI disorders of free stone fruit. A genetic linkage map of linkage group 4 (LG4) was constructed with SSR and candidate genes (CGs). Significant quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for mealiness, graininess, leatheriness and bleeding were found in this linkage group, validating QTLs for CI symptoms previously reported in this linkage group from an unrelated progeny population. In addition, QTLs controlling other agronomic and fruit quality traits were also localized in this linkage group.

QTL Analysis of Fruit Quality Traits in Peach [Prunus Persica (L.) Batsch] Using Dense SNP Maps

“…The second round was used to identify QTLs that were mapped over twelve LG representing seven peach chromosomes (data not shown). Some of the QTLs were mapped in the same position of previously reported for antioxidant compounds and soluble solids content found in the same population (Cantín et al, 2010) and other unrelated peach progeny populations (Quilot et al, 2004;Dirlewanger et al, 2006;Arús et al, 2012). QTLs for fructose in LG 6 and phenolic compounds in LG2 were detected for the first time.…”

“…Moreover, several authors (Dirlewanger et al, 1998;Etienne et al, 2002;Quilot et al, 2004;Cantín et al, 2010) have localized QTLs involved in the control of physico-chemical components of different fruit quality traits, such as sugars and organic acid contents on linkage groups 4, 5 and 6. Regarding antioxidant compounds, Dirlewanger et al (2006) analyzed the genetic control of fruit phenolics in the peach F2 population ('Ferjalou-Jalousia'® × 'Fantasia') and detected QTLs involved in phenolic compounds on LGs 1, 2, 4 and 6.…”

The high-quality draft genome of peach (Prunus persica) identifies unique patterns of genetic diversity, domestication and genome evolution

“…17). High local LD may result from selective sweeps related to domestication and breeding; quantitative trait loci for fruit size, a typical domestication trait, have been mapped in regions showing LD peaks on pseudomolecule 4 at ~2 Mb, ~8 Mb 35 and ~20 Mb 29,35,36 and on pseudomolecule 5 (15-17 Mb; Fig. 1) 35 .…”

QTL mapping for brown rot (Monilinia fructigena) resistance in an intraspecific peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) F1 progeny

“…This is in agreement with the obtained 9 BR resistance QTLs (out of 12) that clustered in the MD-associated region on LG4, when preliminary IM QTL analysis was performed (Electronic Supplementary Material 2 and 3). This MD locus on LG4 has previously been proposed to exert pleiotropic effects on other fruit traits of Prunus and Malus, such as fruit size, SSC, and acidity (Eduardo et al 2010b), as well as chilling injury (CI) susceptibility traits, which collocated with a MD QTL in an analogous position of linkage LG4 of a "Venus"×"Big Top" F1 map (Cantin et al 2010). Ripening is the sum of multiple biochemical and physiological changes that occur at the final stage of fruit development (Giovannoni 2001).…”