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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Salinas, California » Crop Improvement and Protection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #320501
Title: Association mapping of leaf traits in spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.)

Author
item MA, JIANBING - 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 CORRELL, JIM - University Of Arkansas
item XIONG, HAIZHENG - University Of Arkansas
item QIN, JUN - University Of Arkansas
item CHITWOOD, JESSICA - University Of Arkansas
item WENG, YUEJIN - University Of Arkansas

Submitted to: Plant Breeding
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/13/2016
Publication Date: 6/3/2016
Citation: Ma, J., Shi, A., Mou, B., Evans, M., Clark, J., Motes, D., Correll, J., Xiong, H., Qin, J., Chitwood, J., Weng, Y. 2016. Association mapping of leaf traits in spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.). Plant Breeding. 135:399-404.

Interpretive Summary: Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is a nutritious vegetable that is cultivated world-wide mainly for its leaves. Therefore, surface texture (smooth vs. savoy or semi-savoy), petiole color (green vs. purple), and edge shape (serrate vs. entire) are important leaf traits of spinach. The association mapping for the three traits were conducted using 323 accessions of the USDA spinach collection, originally collected from 33 countries. The majority of accessions were from Europe (36.3%), Asia (25.3%) and North America (15.8%). The majority of the spinach accessions (82.0%) were smooth and unwrinkled type, and the savoy and semi-savoy types together accounted for 18.0%. Green petioles appeared in 74.9% of the accessions, while the accessions with purple petioles consisted of 25.1% of the entire collection. The serrated and entire leaf edge types showed up in 27.24% and 72.76% of the accessions, respectively. DNA sequencing was used to identify differences in single nucleotides (SNP) and to discover the association between SNPs and the three leaf traits. Molecular analysis software and statistical packages were used in the data analysis. Five, 14, and 7 SNPs were identified to be associated with surface texture, petiole color, and edge shape, respectively. These SNPs can be used as markers to help spinach breeders select the three leaf traits in the development of improved cultivars.

Technical Abstract: Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is an important leafy vegetable crop grown world-wide. Leaf traits, surface texture (smooth vs. savoy or semi-savoy), petiole color (green vs. purple), and edge shape (serrate vs. entire) are important for spinach. Association mapping of the three traits were conducted using 323 USDA spinach germplasm accessions, originally collected from 33 countries, and represented the entire USDA spinach germplasm collections. The majority of accessions were from Europe (36.3%), Asia (25.3%) and North America (15.8%). The majority of the spinach accessions (82.0%) were smooth and unwrinkled type, and the savoy and semi-savoy types together accounted for 18.0%. Most (75%) accessions in the collection had green petioles and the remaining ones (25%) had purple petioles. Similarly, the entire edge appeared in 72.8% of the accessions in the collection and the remaining accessions showed serrated edge. Genotyping by Sequencing was used for SNP discovery, and SNPs were used for genotyping to conduct genetic diversity and association analysis of the three leaf traits. Five genetic populations and principal component analysis (PCA) were postulated by STRUCTURE 2 and JMP Genomics 7 for this association panel. Five, 14, and 7 SNPs were associated with surface texture, petiole color, and edge shape, respectively. These SNP markers will provide spinach breeders with tools to select the three leaf traits through marker-assisted selection.