Genetic diversity assessed by genotyping by sequencing (GBS) and for phenological traits in blueberry cultivars

Abstract

Blueberry is a small fruit crop which includes a complex group of different Vaccinium species of various ploidy levels. Commercial blueberries have been grown in Europe most recently, so there is not much information available about their adaptation into new regions. In this work we investigated adaptation to the environmental conditions of northern Spain, in terms of flowering and ripening seasons, of a set of 70 blueberry cultivars including several of the most important cultivated American species (V. corymbosum, V. virgatum, V. macrocarpon and V. uliginosum) in order to identify which types are best-suited in this geographical area of Europe. Most materials showed high chilling requirements for flowering under local conditions, while materials with low-chilling requirements showed problems in the maturation process of the flowers. Most cultivars were early or mid-season while a relative lack of late-season cultivars was observed. GBS was used for the analysis of genetic diversity in this sample of 70 cultivars. A total of 5255 SNP markers were obtained and a cluster analysis revealed three main groups associated with the ploidy level of the species. A Principal Component Analysis revealed a grouping of the V. corymbosum cultivars according to their chilling requirements. A total of 29 SNPs were identified as being highly informative for diversity analysis and potentially useful for cultivar identification and for breeding purposes. The results obtained from this research should contribute to the expansion of this crop, as well as providing data about genetic diversity useful for the preservation of genetic resources or for future breeding programs.

Development of a genetic framework to improve the efficiency of bioactive delivery from blueberry

“…Results from the PCA indicated the absence of distinctive bioaccessibility features between the highbush blueberry and their hybrids (Supplementary Figure S7 ). These results are consistent with previous studies that NHB and SHB did not show distinctive features as evaluated by molecular markers or phenolic metabolite content 18 , 68 , 69 . The two highbush blueberry classifications, NHB and SHB, are commonly used in blueberry breeding programs for the improvement of agronomic and bioactive metabolite traits 24 , 70 .…”

Diversity in Metabolites and Fruit Quality Traits in Blueberry Enables Ploidy and Species Differentiation and Establishes a Strategy for Future Genetic Studies

“…Similarly, NHB and SHB hybrids are very easy to obtain and are commonly used in breeding programs (Ballington, 2009;Hancock et al, 2018;Retamales and Hancock, 2018). Consistent with these observations, two independent studies (Campa and Ferreira, 2018;Zong et al, 2019) that used molecular markers to characterize blueberry germplasm revealed that the different ploidy (2×, 4×, 6×) were clearly differentiated, while SHB, NHB and half-highbush cultivars were not separated into different groups.…”

Molecular footprints of selection effects and whole genome duplication (WGD) events in three blueberry species: detected by transcriptome dataset

“…The sources of blueberry cultivars are complex, so clarifications by phylogenetic relationships are meaningful for the identification, protection and breeding of blueberry germplasm. Previous studies have used different molecular makers, including RAPD, SSR and SNP as a tool to construct the phylogenetic relationship of blueberry germplasm with different genetic origin [65][66][67][68][69]. In spite of the blueberry cultivars or breeding materials are from different origins or species with different ploidy levels, the SSR and SNPs marker seems to be an effective tool to differentiate and categorize blueberry cultivars [65,67,69].…”

“…Previous studies have used different molecular makers, including RAPD, SSR and SNP as a tool to construct the phylogenetic relationship of blueberry germplasm with different genetic origin [65][66][67][68][69]. In spite of the blueberry cultivars or breeding materials are from different origins or species with different ploidy levels, the SSR and SNPs marker seems to be an effective tool to differentiate and categorize blueberry cultivars [65,67,69]. Here, we used single copy nuclear gene dataset to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of three blueberry species, and detected a good differentiation and grouping of blueberry cultivars with different origins.…”