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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Miami, Florida » Subtropical Horticulture Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #279371
Title: Association mapping in cacao

Author
item Gutierrez, Osman
item NAGAI, CHIFUMI - Hawaii Agricultural Research Center
item HEINIG, REBECCA - Hawaii Agricultural Research Center
item Boza, Edward
item Tondo, Cecile
item MOTAMAYOR, JUAN - Mars, Inc
item SCHNELL, RAYMOND - Mars, Inc

Submitted to: Annual International Plant & Animal Genome Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/10/2011
Publication Date: 1/16/2012
Citation: Gutierrez, O.A., Nagai, C., Heinig, R., Boza, E.J., Tondo, C.L., Motamayor, J.C., Schnell, R.J. 2012. Association mapping in cacao. Annual International Plant & Animal Genome Conference. XX Annual International Plant & Animal Genome Conference,January 14-18, 2012, San Diego, CA.

Interpretive Summary: Association mapping is becoming important in perennial crops because it is a better alternative to the classical QTL's mapping approaches. The development of large breeding populations (F2, backcrosses and recombinant inbred populations) is a requirement of QTL's discovery; however, this process requires years in cacao because of its long and slow growing reproductive cycle. In a previous study, a population of cacao in Hawaii was characterized using SSR markers and it was determined that it belonged to the Trinitario and Upper Amazon Forastero by Trinitario hybrid groups. One hundred productive and fifty-one unproductive plants from this population were selected and fingerprinted using 80 SSR markers equally distributed across the cacao linkage groups. Yield data for pod and bean characters from the selected and unselected plants were also collected from 2007 until 2009. The objective of this study were to investigate the possible association between SSR markers and yield traits in productive as well as unproductive selected plants. Population structure and association mapping studies were conducted using the Structure and GenStat software. Preliminary results indicated that some association between SSR markers and yield traits may be present in this population.

Technical Abstract: Association mapping is becoming important in perennial crops because it is a better alternative to the classical QTL's mapping approaches. The development of large breeding populations (F2, backcrosses and recombinant inbred populations) is a requirement of QTL's discovery; however, this process requires years in cacao because of its long and slow growing reproductive cycle. In a previous study, a population of cacao in Hawaii was characterized using SSR markers and it was determined that it belonged to the Trinitario and Upper Amazon Forastero by Trinitario hybrid groups. One hundred productive and fifty-one unproductive plants from this population were selected and fingerprinted using 80 SSR markers equally distributed across the cacao linkage groups. Yield data for pod and bean characters from the selected and unselected plants were also collected from 2007 until 2009. The objective of this study were to investigate the possible association between SSR markers and yield traits in productive as well as unproductive selected plants. Population structure and association mapping studies were conducted using the Structure and GenStat software. Preliminary results indicated that some association between SSR markers and yield traits may be present in this population.