Development of the core lettuce germplasm collection

The objective is to develop a core lettuce germplasm collection (about 300 accessions) from about 800 accessions to represent genetic diversity, include key agronomic traits, and support future genetic studies (GWAS, QTL mapping, gene cloning). The core collection combined genomic data (3 Gb/accession) with phenotypic traits (bolting time, leaf shape, disease resistance, yield, et al.) to explore the mechanisms on some important agronomic traits. These core accessions were selected not only for their genetic variability but also for their diverse phenotypic characteristics, making them highly valuable for further research and breeding applications.