GWAS and Coexpression Network Reveal Ionomic Variation in Cultivated Peanut

Peanut
is an important legume providing products with nutrient
dense including mineral nutrition. However, the genetic basis underlying
the variations in the mineral composition in peanut is still unknown.
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of the concentrations of 13
mineral elements combined with coexpression network were performed
using a diverse panel of 120 genotypes mainly selected from the U.S.
peanut mini core collection. A total of 36 significant quantitative
trait loci (QTLs) associated with five elemental concentrations were
identified with phenotypic variation explained (PVE) from 18.35% to
27.56%, in which 24 QTLs were for boron (B), 2 QTLs for copper (Cu),
6 QTLs for sodium (Na), 3 QTLs for sulfur (S), and 1 QTL for zinc
(Zn). A total of 110 nonredundant candidate causal genes identified
were significantly associated with elemental accumulation, which included
one high-priority overlap (HPO) candidate gene arahy.KQD4NT, an important elemental/metal transporter gene located on LGB04
with position 5,413,913–5,417,353.