Genomic insights of leafminer resistance in spinach through GWAS approach and genomic predictionOA

The Leafminers,representing a diverse group of insects from various genera within the Agromyzidae family,pose a significant threat to spinach(Spinacia oleracea L.)production.This study aimed to identify single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP)markers associated with leafminer resistance through a genome-wide association study(GWAS)and to evaluate the prediction accuracy(PA)for selecting resistant spinach using genomic prediction(GP).Using a dataset of 84301 SNPs obtained from whole-genome resequencing,seven GWAS models,including BLINK,FarmCPU,MLM,and MLMM in GAPIT 3,as well as MLM,GLM,and SMR in TASSEL 5,were employed to perform GWAS on a panel of 286 USDA spinach germplasm accessions.Three SNP markers,namely 1_115279256_C_T,3_157082529_C_T,and 4_168510908_T_G on chromosomes 1,3,and 4,respectively,were identified as associated with leafminer resistance.In the 30 kb flanking regions of these markers,four candidate genes(SOV1g031330,SOV1g031340,SOV4g047270,and SOV4g047280),encoding LOB domain-containing protein,KH domain-containing protein,were discovered.Nodulin-like domain-containing protein,and SAM domain-containing protein,were discovered.The PA for leafminer resistance selection was estimated using ten different SNP sets,including two GWAS-derived marker sets(three and 51 SNPs)and eight random marker sets(ranging from 51 to 10 K SNPs)analyzed by seven GP models.The findings emphasized the superior performance of GWAS-derived SNP sets,reaching a PA of up to 0.79 using the cBLUP model.Notably,this research marks the pioneering application of GP in the context of insect resistance,providing a significant advancement in the understanding and management of leafminer resistance in spinach cultivation.