Association study of SNP locus for color related traits in herbaceous peony () using SLAF-seq.

. () is a famous ornamental plant with showy and colorful flowers that has been domesticated in China for 4,000 years. However, the genetic basis of phenotypic variation and genealogical relationships in population is poorly understood due to limited genetic information, which brings about bottlenecks in the application of effective and efficient breeding strategies. Understanding the genetic basis of color-related traits is essential for improving flower color by marker-assisted selection (MAS). In this study, a high throughput sequencing of 99 diploid accessions specific-locus amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq) technology was performed. In total, 4,383,645 SLAF tags were developed from 99 accessions with an average sequencing depth of 20.81 for each SLAF tag. A total of 2,954,574 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified from all SLAF tags. The population structure and phylogenetic analysis showed that population used in this study could be divided into six divergent groups. Through association study using Mixed linear model (MLM), we further identified 40 SNPs that were significantly positively associated with petal color. Moreover, a derived cleaved amplified polymorphism (dCAPS) marker that was designed based on the SLAF tag 270512F co-segregated with flower colors in population. Taken together, our results provide valuable insights into the application of MAS in breeding programs.