Evaluation of three sets of advanced backcrosses of eggplant with wild relatives from different gene pools under low N fertilization conditions

Abstract

The development of new cultivars with improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is key for implementing sustainable agriculture practices. Crop wild relatives (CWRs) provide valuable genetic resources for breeding programs aimed at achieving this goal. In this study, three eggplant (Solanum melongena) accessions together with their advanced backcrosses (ABs; BC3 to BC5 generations) were evaluated for 22 morpho-agronomic, physiological, and NUE traits under low nitrogen (LN) fertilization conditions. The ABs were developed with introgressions from the wild relatives Solanum insanum, Solanum dasyphyllum, and Solanum elaeagnifolium. The AB population comprised a total of 25, 59, and 59 genotypes, respectively, with overall donor wild relative genome coverage percentages of 58.8%, 46.3%, and 99.2%. The three S. melongena recurrent parents were also evaluated under control (normal) N fertilization. Reduction of N fertilization in the parents resulted in decreased chlorophyll content-related traits, aerial biomass, stem diameter, and yield and increased NUE, nitrogen uptake efficiency (NUpE), and nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUtE). However, the decrease in yield was moderate, ranging between 62.6% and 72.6%. A high phenotypic variation was observed within each of the three sets of ABs under LN conditions, with some individuals displaying improved transgressive characteristics over the recurrent parents. Using the single primer enrichment technology 5 k probes platform for high-throughput genotyping, we observed a variable but high degree of recurrent parent genome recovery in the ABs attributable to the lines recombination, allowing the successful identification of 16 quantitative trait loci (QTL). Different allelic effects were observed for the introgressed QTL alleles. Several candidate genes were identified in the QTL regions associated with plant growth, yield, fruit size, and NUE-related parameters. Our results show that eggplant materials with introgressions from CWRs can result in a dramatic impact in eggplant breeding for a more sustainable agriculture.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the project SOLNUE in the framework of the H2020 call SusCrop-ERA-Net (ID#47) and funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (PCI2019-103375), by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, (grants RTI2018-094592-B-I00 from MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE, and PID2021-128148OB-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and “ESF Investing in your future”), and by Conselleria d’Innovació, Universitats, Ciència i Societat Digital of the Generalitat Valenciana (grant CIPROM/2021/020). The Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, and Fondo Social Europeo funded a predoctoral fellowship to Gloria Villanueva (PRE2019-103375). P.G. is grateful to Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación for a post-doctoral grant (RYC2021–031999-I) funded by (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and the European Union through NextGenerationEU/PRTR.

Data Availability

Relevant data can be found within the paper and its supporting materials. All data of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Supplementary data

Supplementary data is available at Horticulture Research online.

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