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

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Teberdar Ҫalişkan and Engin Ҫetiner for phenotypic characterization of the hazelnut material.

Funding

This study was funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK, project no: 212T201).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, 01075, USA

    Amy Frary

  2. Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Izmir Institute of Technology, Urla, 35433, Izmir, Turkey

    Süleyman Can Ӧztürk, Sami Doğanlar & Anne Frary

  3. Hazelnut Research Institute, 28100, Giresun, Turkey

    Hüseyin Irfan Balık & Selda Kayalak Balık

  4. General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies, 06800, Ankara, Turkey

    Gökhan Kızılcı

Authors
  1. Amy Frary
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  2. Süleyman Can Ӧztürk
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  4. Selda Kayalak Balık
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  5. Gökhan Kızılcı
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  6. Sami Doğanlar
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  7. Anne Frary
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Contributions

AF analyzed results and drafted manuscript; SCӦ generated genotypic data and performed mapping; HIB, SKB and GK provided plant material and phenotypic data; SD and AF devised experiments; AF obtained funding and revised draft. All authors approved of submitted manuscript.

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Correspondence to Anne Frary.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. The work complies with ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by the authors.

Data availability

Data will be available at http://plantmolgen.iyte.edu.tr/data/ upon publication.

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Communicated by Stefan Hohmann.

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Frary, A., Ӧztürk, S.C., Balık, H.I. et al. Analysis of European hazelnut (Corylus avellana) reveals loci for cultivar improvement and the effects of domestication and selection on nut and kernel traits. Mol Genet Genomics 294, 519–527 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-018-1527-1

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