Identification and validation of a major locus with linked marker for resveratrol content in culitivated peanut

Resveratrol, a polyphenolic compound, is related with stress resistance or tolerance in plants and highly beneficial to human health. Peanut ( Arachis hypogaea L.) is not only an important oilseed crop worldwide but also a key source of resveratrol from dietary food. In this study, a peanut recombinant inbred line (RIL) population consisting of 166 lines derived from a cross combination with a high resveratrol variety ICGV86699 and a normal resveratrol variety Zhonghua 5 as parents was assessed for resveratrol content across three environments. Broad phenotypic variation of resveratrol content ranging from 76.75 to 1617.00 µg/kg was observed among the RILs. From phenotyping resveratrol content and other traits, three elite lines (QT079, QT135, and QT141) were identified with resveratrol level as high as ICGV86699 while their seeds weights were around 1.5 times of ICGV8669. Nine additive QTLs with phenotypic variation explained (PVE) ranging from 6.66 to 11.33% were detected for resveratrol contnet, among which, qRESA05.3 with 7.88–10.91% PVE was repeatedly detected. Furthermore, an InDel marker (InDel-A05-8,713,397) based on qRESA05.3 could be detected in both the RILs and selected diverse peanut germplasm accessions possessing “aa” genotype, and the average resveratrol content of these “aa” accessions was significantly higher than that in the genotypes possessing “AA”. The favorable allele was found to raise the resveratrol content by 292.15 ± 32.05 µg/kg in the diverse germplasm panel. This is the first report of stable marker for peanut resveratrol, which would be helpful for further fine-mapping the locus and developing marker-assisted selection strategy for high resveratrol peanut.