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QTL analysis for pseudostem pungency in bunching onion (Allium fistulosum)

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Abstract

Low pungency is one of the most important agronomic traits in bunching onion (Allium fistulosum L.). Although the degree of pungency can be evaluated indirectly using a colorimetric test for pyruvic acid, DNA markers linked to low-pungency quantitative trait loci (QTLs) are still desired. In this study, we evaluated pungency in the bunching onion pseudostem through six trials conducted over 3 years using an F 2:3 population. QTL analysis based on the genetic linkage map revealed that the major pungency QTL was located within a 24.2-cM interval on Chr. 2a. The low-pungency parent-derived allele at AFAT04B03, a simple sequence repeat locus linked to the pungency QTL, was rare among commercial bunching onion cultivars. In addition, individuals homozygous for the low-pungency parent-derived allele at AFAT04B03 were significantly less pungent than those that were homozygous or heterozygous. Thus, these findings suggest that AFAT04B03 is an effective selection marker for low pungency in bunching onion breeding.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Misses K. Tanaka and S. Negoro for technical assistance. We also thank Messrs Y. Takashi, S. Masuji, H. Hori, and K. Shomura and Misses T. Kihira and K. Wakita for fieldwork. We acknowledge Drs. A. Itai (Tottori Univ.) and H. Shiraiwa (Tottori Horticultural Experiment Station) for providing some bunching onion gene-derived markers. This work was supported by NARO research project no. 211 “Establishment of Integrated Basis for Development and Application of Advanced Tools for DNA Marker-Assisted Selection in Horticultural Crops.”

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Correspondence to Hikaru Tsukazaki.

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Hikaru Tsukazaki, Shigenori Yaguchi authors are contributed equally to this manuscript.

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11032_2012_9752_MOESM6_ESM.ppt

Supplemental Figure 1. The bunching onion chromosome map based on the SaT03 population, consisting 20 of 17 linkage groups with 268 markers covering 1,670 cM. The newly developed linkage 19 group was assigned to chromosome 4 and is shown as Chr. 4c. The other 16 linkage groups were previously assigned to the eight basic chromosomes (Tsukazaki et al. 2011). The 40 newly mapped markers are indicated with asterisks. Supplementary material 6 (PPT 433 kb)

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Tsukazaki, H., Yaguchi, S., Yamashita, Ki. et al. QTL analysis for pseudostem pungency in bunching onion (Allium fistulosum). Mol Breeding 30, 1689–1698 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-012-9752-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-012-9752-5

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