Analysis of European hazelnut (Corylus avellana) reveals loci for cultivar improvement and the effects of domestication and selection on nut and kernel traits.

Turkey is a rich source of European hazelnut (Corylus avellana) germplasm with nearly 400 accessions in the national collection. This genetic material encompasses cultivars, landraces and wild genotypes which were characterized for 12 nut and 13 kernel traits over 2 years in the 1990s. Analysis of these attributes revealed both the positive and negative impacts that human selection and breeding have had on hazelnut. Thus, while selection has resulted in larger nuts and kernels, cultivars have fewer nuts per cluster and kernels with larger internal cavities. Breeding has also resulted in a propensity for cultivars to have higher proportions of double kernels and empty nuts, two traits which reduce quality and yield. In addition, it is clear that while selection has successfully increased hazelnut fat content it has not impacted overall flavor, a much more complex trait. The nut and kernel phenotypic data were combined with genotypic data from 406 simple sequence repeat marker alleles for association mapping of the quantitative trait loci (QTL) for the traits. A total of 78 loci were detected in the population with the highest proportions for nut (24%) and kernel (26%) appearance parameters followed by quality (19%), shell thickness (16%) and yield-related (15%) traits. It is hoped that some of the identified QTL will be useful for future breeding of hazelnut for improved nut and kernel yield and quality.