Liu Zhenshan, Bernard Anthony, Wang Yan, Dirlewanger Elisabeth, Wang Xiaorong
College of Horticulture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China.
INRAE, Univ. Bordeaux, UMR BFP, Villenave d'Ornon 33882, France.
Hortic Res. 2024 Sep 24;12(1):uhae269. doi: 10.1093/hr/uhae269. eCollection 2025 Jan.
Cherries are one of the economically important fruit crops in the Rosaceae family, genus. As the first fruits of the spring season in the northern hemisphere, their attractive appearance, intensely desirable tastes, high nutrients content, and consumer-friendly size captivate consumers worldwide. In the past 30 years, although cherry geneticists and breeders have greatly progressed in understanding the genetic and molecular basis underlying fruit quality, adaptation to climate change, and biotic and abiotic stress resistance, the utilization of cherry genomic data in genetics and molecular breeding has remained limited to date. Here, we thoroughly investigated recent discoveries in constructing genetic linkage maps, identifying quantitative trait loci (QTLs), genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and validating functional genes of edible cherries based on available genomes and genome resequencing data of edible cherries. We further comprehensively demonstrated the genetic architecture of the main agronomic traits of edible cherries by methodically integrating QTLs, GWAS loci, and functional genes into the identical reference genome with improved annotations. These collective endeavors will offer new perspectives on the availability of sequence data and the construction of an interspecific pangenome of edible cherries, ultimately guiding cherry breeding strategies and genetic improvement programs, and facilitating the exploration of similar traits and breeding innovations across species.
樱桃是蔷薇科中经济上重要的水果作物之一。作为北半球春季的首批水果，它们诱人的外观、令人垂涎的口味、高营养成分以及适合消费者的大小吸引了全球消费者。在过去30年里，尽管樱桃遗传学家和育种者在理解果实品质、适应气候变化以及生物和非生物胁迫抗性的遗传和分子基础方面取得了巨大进展，但迄今为止，樱桃基因组数据在遗传学和分子育种中的应用仍然有限。在此，我们基于可获得的食用樱桃基因组和基因组重测序数据，全面研究了在构建遗传连锁图谱、鉴定数量性状位点（QTL）、全基因组关联研究（GWAS）以及验证食用樱桃功能基因方面的最新发现。我们通过系统地将QTL、GWAS位点和功能基因整合到具有改进注释的同一参考基因组中，进一步全面展示了食用樱桃主要农艺性状的遗传结构。这些共同努力将为食用樱桃序列数据的可用性和种间泛基因组的构建提供新的视角，最终指导樱桃育种策略和遗传改良计划，并促进跨物种相似性状的探索和育种创新。
