High-density genetic linkage-map construction of hawthorn and QTL mapping for important fruit traits

Few reports exist on QTL mapping of the important economic traits of hawthorn. We hybridized the cultivars ‘Shandongdamianqiu’ (female parent) and ‘Xinbinruanzi’ (male parent), and 130 F(1) individuals and the two parents were used for RAD-seq, SNP development, and high-density linkage map construction. Three genetic maps were obtained, one for each of the parents and an integrated one. In these three maps, 17 linkage groups were constructed. The female and male parent maps contained 2657 and 4088 SNP markers, respectively, and had genetic distances of 2689.65 and 2558.41 cM, respectively, whereas the integrated map was 2470.02 cM, and contained 6,384 SNP markers. QTL mapping based on six agronomic traits, namely fruit transverse diameter, vertical diameter, single fruit weight, pericarp brittleness, pericarp puncture hardness, and average sarcocarp firmness were conducted, and 25 QTLs were detected in seven linkage groups. Explained phenotypic variation rate ranged from 17.7% to 35%. This genetic map contains the largest number of molecular markers ever obtained from hawthorn and will provide an important future reference for fine QTL mapping of economic traits and molecular assisted selection of hawthorn.