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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Raleigh, North Carolina » Food Science and Market Quality and Handling Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #419061
Research Project: Improvement and Maintenance of Peanuts, Peanut Products and Related Peanut Product Flavor, Shelf Life, Functional Characteristics

Location: Food Science and Market Quality and Handling Research Unit

Title: A Disillusioned Note on Biofortification Breeding

Author
item FRITZ, KATELYN - North Carolina State University
item ANDRES, RYAN - North Carolina State University
item NEWMAN, CASSONDRA - North Carolina State University
item OAKLEY, ANDREW - North Carolina State University
item RELLAN-ALVAREZ, REUBEN - North Carolina State University
item Dean, Lisa
item DUNNE, JEFFREY - North Carolina State University

Submitted to: Peanut Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/2/2026
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Folate, also known as Vitamin B9 is a necessary nutrient in the human diet. Peanuts are a source of dietary folate, but the levels are slightly below the level to be labeled as a "good" source of folate according to the FDA regulations for nutrition facts labels. Increasing the folate content in peanuts has lagged behind other improvements in the crop such as yield and disease resistance. In this study, 65 genes involved in folate production in peanut were identified and two molecular markers were discovered that could possibly enable the development of higher levels of folate in peanut. A simplified method to determine folate content was used to try to quantify folate in several peanut lines that were previously determined to produce higher levels of folate did not prove to give consistent results but an advanced genomic and bioinformatic pipeline was developed that can be used for longer term research and will be used for further study.

Technical Abstract: Folate (Vitamin B9) is an essential nutrient involved in the biosynthesis of nucleic acids and proteins. Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an excellent source of dietary folate but breeding strategies to biofortify peanut with elevated folate have lagged behind other breeding objectives, primarily yield and stress resistance. To address this, sixty-five genes were identified in the peanut genome as potentially involved in the folate biosynthetic and metabolism pathways. Two genome wide association studies (GWAS) were conducted to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with folate content in peanut. Only one GWAS produced statistically significant markers and neither of the two markers were within 4.8Mb of a folate pathway gene. An economical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was tested to quantify folate but produced inconsistent values amongst replicated checks. In addition, three purported recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations developed for folate content were genotyped using the Tecan Allegro® Targeted Genotyping platform. While Allegro®, along with the bioinformatics pipeline developed here, represent a powerful tool to advance peanut genomics, none of the populations displayed segregation consistent with a RIL population. Combined with the inability to develop a reliable folate phenotyping strategy, quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping of folate content in peanut could not be performed.