Screening and QTL mapping for mechanical shelling damage related traits in peanut

Key Points

• The aim is to identify traits affecting mechanical shelling quality in peanuts and understand their genetic basis.
• Evaluated 63 advanced-generation peanut lines for three traits: shelling percentage, pod crushing force, kernel crushing force.
• Conducted correlation analysis to associate kernel crushing force with damaged kernel rate.
• Used a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population of 181 individuals for QTL mapping of kernel crushing force across multiple locations.
• Collected phenotypic data from 2020 to 2023.
• Identified two peanut lines with low damaged kernel rates (< 2.50%).
• Eight additive QTLs associated with kernel crushing force identified, explaining 6.04% to 28.30% of phenotypic variation.
• Two major QTLs, qKCF7 and qKCF16.1, were stable across environments, with favorable alleles from Huayu 36.
• Detected 12 pairs of epistatic QTLs involving 24 SNP intervals, explaining 1.55% to 4.01% of phenotypic variation.