QTL mapping for flower characters using ‘Guara’ × ‘Nurlu’ F1 population in almond

Abstract

Almond is the only nut tree in Rosaceae family and it is one of the most important nut crops in Turkey. Construction of genetic linkage maps and quantitative trait locus (QTLs) analysis are important tools to develop markers linked to economically important phenotypic characters. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) based linkage map in almond using ‘Guara’ × ‘Nurlu’ F1 population was constructed and flower characters such as color, full blooming date and position of anthers were phenotypically characterized in the population during three consecutive years. The consensus map included a total of 153 SSR markers in eight linkage groups (LGs). The number of mapped markers changed between 15 (LG4) and 25 (LG2), and the length of the LGs varied from 49.8 (LG6) cm to 85.1 cm (LG1). An average number of SSR markers per linkage group was 19. The average distance between markers was 3.2. Two QTLs for full blooming in LG1 and LG7, two QTLs for the position of anthers in LG3 and in LG8, and one QTL for flower color in LG6 were detected.