Understanding the genetics of quality traits in groundnut: GWAS highlights drought-responsive markers and candidate genes

Purohit, A and Lenka, D and Wankhade, A P and Vemula, A K and Choudhary, S and Deshmukh, D B and Gangurde, S S and Potupureddi, G and Pandey, M K and Janila, P (2026) Understanding the genetics of quality traits in groundnut: GWAS highlights drought-responsive markers and candidate genes. Theoretical and Applied Genetics (TSI), 139. pp. 1-26. ISSN 0040-5752

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Abstract

Nutritional quality traits are crucial in crop breeding, especially with climate change affecting quality and yield. Increasing dry spells in semiarid regions require understanding drought stress effects on oil, protein, and fatty acid contents of groundnut kernels, and the molecular mechanisms governing these traits. The study showed a reduction in oil content and increase in protein content in a MAGIC population of groundnut under drought stress. MAGIC population exhibited high diversity with 13,937 polymorphic markers and are valuable for the genetic dissection of complex traits as compared to a RIL population with 800 polymorphic markers. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) employing multi-locus models such as BLINK, and MLMM identified 45 significant MTAs for oil, protein, oleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, and linoleic acid under normal and drought stress across all chromosomes except A06, B01, B02, B03, B04, B05, and B06. Fourteen SNPs are identified with > 10% PVE linked to six quality traits, seven pleiotropic SNPs associated with multiple traits, and nine SNPs in both models across at least in two environments. Potential candidate genes for quality traits under drought stress are RING finger proteins and protein kinases for oil content; CASP-like protein and geranylgeranyl diphosphate reductase (GLDR) for protein content, and fatty acid desaturase 2, MYB transcription factor, and AMMECR1 family for oleic and palmitic acid content having role in various biosynthetic and lipid pathways. The MTAs identified in this study hold potential for development into assays for genomic-assisted selection to enhance nutritional quality and drought resilience in groundnut.

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Center of Excellence in Genomics and Systems Biology
Global Research Program - Accelerated Crop Improvement
CRP: UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords: genetics, drought stress, kernel quality traits, genomic resources, groundnut, Genome-wide association study (GWAS)
Subjects: Mandate crops > Groundnut
Others > Genetics and Genomics
Depositing User: Mr Nagaraju T
Date Deposited: 23 Mar 2026 10:47
Last Modified: 23 Mar 2026 10:47
URI: http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/13553
Official URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00122-0...
Projects: CRP-Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (GLDC)
Funders: Department of Agricutlure, Odisha state, India
Acknowledgement: The authors are thankful to Gopi Potupureddi and K. Sivasakthi for their support in conducting the experiments.
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