Genome-Wide Association Studies Provide Insights into the Genetic Determination of Flower and Leaf Traits of Actinidia eriantha

Kiwifruit ( Actinidia eriantha ) is a dioecious vine, and the pollen of its male cultivars has a direct effect on the quality of its fruits. In this study, to facilitate molecular breeding and gene identification, we performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on 11 traits of flower and leaf. A total of 946,337 highly consistent SNP markers were obtained in the whole genome. Phylogenetic tree analysis and population structure analysis showed that the 143 germplasms can be divided into two groups. The linkage disequilibrium analysis showed that A. eriantha have a relatively fast attenuation rate, and that the average attenuation distance of LD was 0.1–0.3 Kb. The MLM (QK) model was determined as best for correlation analysis, and eight and three SNPs associated with flower- and leaf-related traits were identified, respectively, at 0.01 significance level. However, SNP markers associated with stamen number per flower, pollen viability, total chlorophyll content, and total flavonoid content were not identified at the 0.01 significant level, although it is worth noting that one, one, five, and two SNPs were identified to be associated with these traits at the 0.05 significant level. This study provides insights into the complex flower- and leaf-related biology, and identifies genes controlling important traits in A. eriantha through GWAS, which extends the genetic resources and basis for facilitating molecular breeding in kiwifruits.