The global production and consumption of blueberry (Vaccinium spp.), a specialty crop known for its abundant bioactive and antioxidant compounds, has more than doubled over the last decade. To hold this momentum, plant breeders have begun to use quantitative genetics and molecular breeding to guide their decisions and select new cultivars that are improved for fruit quality. In this study, we leveraged our inferences on the genetic basis of fruit texture and chemical components by surveying large breeding populations from northern (NHB) and southern (SHB) highbush blueberries, the two dominant cultivated blueberries. After evaluating 1065 NHB genotypes planted at the Oregon State University, and 992 SHB genotypes maintained at the University of Florida for 20 texture-related traits, evaluated over multiple years, our contributions consist of: (i) We drew attention to differences between NHB and SHB materials and showed that both blueberry types can be differentiated using texture traits; (ii) We computed genetic parameters and shed light on the genetic architecture of important texture attributes, indicating that most traits had a complex nature with low to moderate heritability; (iii) using molecular breeding, we emphasized that prediction could be performed across populations; and finally (iv) the genomic-association analyses pinpointed some genomic regions harboring potential candidate genes for texture that could be used for further validation studies. Altogether, the methods and approaches used here can guide future breeding efforts focused on maximizing texture improvements in blueberries.

中文翻译：

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使用全基因组关联分析推断高丛蓝莓果实质地的遗传基础


蓝莓（Vaccinium spp.）是一种以其丰富的生物活性和抗氧化化合物而闻名的特种作物，其全球产量和消费量在过去十年中增加了一倍多。为了保持这种势头，植物育种者已经开始使用定量遗传学和分子育种来指导他们的决策并选择改进果实质量的新品种。在这项研究中，我们通过调查北方（NHB）和南方（SHB）高丛蓝莓（两种主要栽培蓝莓）的大量育种种群，利用对果实质地和化学成分的遗传基础的推论。在对俄勒冈州立大学种植的 1065 个 NHB 基因型和佛罗里达大学维持的 992 个 SHB 基因型进行了多年的 20 个质地相关性状评估后，我们的贡献包括：(i) 我们提请注意 NHB 和SHB 材料并表明可以利用质地特征来区分两种蓝莓类型； (ii) 我们计算了遗传参数并揭示了重要纹理属性的遗传结构，表明大多数性状具有复杂的性质，具有低到中等的遗传力； (iii) 通过分子育种，我们强调可以跨种群进行预测；最后（iv）基因组关联分析确定了一些基因组区域，这些区域含有潜在的纹理候选基因，可用于进一步的验证研究。总而言之，这里使用的方法和方法可以指导未来的育种工作，重点是最大限度地改善蓝莓的质地。