Abstract
BACKGROUND: As the global climate changes, periods of abiotic stress throughout the North American cranberry growing regions will become more common. One consequence of high temperature extremes and drought conditions is sunscald. Scalding damages the developing berry and reduces yields through fruit tissue damage and/or secondary pathogen infection. Irrigation runs to cool the fruit is the primary approach to controlling sunscald. However, it is water intensive and can increase fungal-incited fruit rot. Epicuticular wax functions as a barrier to various environmental stresses in other fruit crops and may be a promising feature to mitigate sunscald in cranberry. In this study we assessed the function of epicuticular wax in cranberries to attenuate stresses associated with sunscald by subjecting high and low epicuticular wax cranberries to controlled desiccation and light/heat exposure. A cranberry population that segregates for epicuticular wax was phenotyped for epicuticular fruit wax levels and genotyped using GBS. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analyses of these data identified a locus associated with epicuticular wax phenotype. A SNP marker was developed in the QTL region to be used for marker assisted selection. RESULTS: Cranberries with high epicuticular wax lost less mass percent and maintained a lower surface temperature following heat/light and desiccation experiments as compared to fruit with low wax. QTL analysis identified a marker on chromosome 1 at position 38,782,094 bp associated with the epicuticular wax phenotype. Genotyping assays revealed that cranberry selections homozygous for a selected SNP have consistently high epicuticular wax scores. A candidate gene (GL1-9), associated with epicuticular wax synthesis, was also identified near this QTL region. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that high cranberry epicuticular wax load may help reduce the effects of heat/light and water stress: two primary contributors to sunscald. Further, the molecular marker identified in this study can be used in marker assisted selection to screen cranberry seedlings for the potential to have high fruit epicuticular wax. This work serves to advance the genetic improvement of cranberry crops in the face of global climate change.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
High-wax cranberries lost less mass than low-wax fruit after stress exposure.
Verbatim
e0“Cranberries with high epicuticular wax lost less mass percent and maintained a lower surface temperature following heat/light and desiccation experiments as compared to fruit with low wax.”
Claim · model-written summary
High-wax cranberries maintained lower surface temperature than low-wax fruit.
Verbatim
e0“Cranberries with high epicuticular wax lost less mass percent and maintained a lower surface temperature following heat/light and desiccation experiments as compared to fruit with low wax.”
Claim · model-written summary
A chromosome 1 marker was associated with epicuticular wax phenotype.
- Taxon
- Cranberryt0
- Gene
- a marker on chromosome 1e0
- Outcome
- epicuticular wax phenotypee0
- Value
- 38,782,094 bpe0
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e0“QTL analysis identified a marker on chromosome 1 at position 38,782,094 bp associated with the epicuticular wax phenotype.”
t0“Cranberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Cranberry selections homozygous for the selected SNP had consistently high wax scores.
Verbatim
e0“cranberry selections homozygous for a selected SNP have consistently high epicuticular wax scores.”
Claim · model-written summary
GL1-9, associated with wax synthesis, was identified near the QTL.
Verbatim
e0“A candidate gene (GL1-9), associated with epicuticular wax synthesis, was also identified near this QTL region.”
t0“Cranberry”
Claim · model-written summary
The marker can screen cranberry seedlings for high fruit wax potential.
Verbatim
e0“the molecular marker identified in this study can be used in marker assisted selection to screen cranberry seedlings for the potential to have high fruit epicuticular wax.”