Susceptibility Evaluation to Fire Blight and Genome-Wide Associations within a Collection of Asturian Apple Accessions

Fire blight, caused by Erwinia amylovora, is one of the most devastating apple diseases. The selection of cultivars of low susceptibility and the study of the genetic mechanisms of the disease play important roles in fire blight management. The susceptibility level to fire blight was evaluated in 10...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: García-Fernández, Belén, Dolcet-Sanjuan, Ramon, Micheletti, Diego, Antón-Díaz, María José, Bover-Cid, Sara, Fernández, Mercedes, Abad, Xavier, Dapena, Enrique
Format: article
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA)
Repository:IRTA Pubpro. Open Digital Archive
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.irta.cat:20.500.12327/2631
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12327/2631
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12234068
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:633
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Summary:Fire blight, caused by Erwinia amylovora, is one of the most devastating apple diseases. The selection of cultivars of low susceptibility and the study of the genetic mechanisms of the disease play important roles in fire blight management. The susceptibility level to fire blight was evaluated in 102 accessions originating from Asturias, a cider-producing region located in the north of Spain with a wide apple germplasm. Evaluations took place under quarantine conditions using artificial inoculations of grafted plants. The results revealed wide variation in susceptibility responses and low-susceptible cultivars were identified. In addition, 91 cultivars were genotyped using the Affymetrix Axiom® Apple 480 K SNP array to conduct genome-wide association studies (GWAS). A statistically significant signal was detected on chromosome 10 using the multi-locus mixed model (MLMM). Two genes were identified as major putative candidate genes: a TIR-NBS-LRR class disease protein and a protein containing a development and cell death (DCD) domain. The outcomes of this study provide a promising source of information, particularly in the context of cider apples, and set a starting point for future genetic and breeding approaches