Construction of a high-density SSR genetic linkage map and identification of QTL for storage-root yield and dry-matter content in sweetpotato

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is a widely grown food crop especially in developing countries. Increasing storage-root yield and dry-matter content has been the main breeding objective of the crop, and DNA marker-assisted breeding is needed for this purpose. In this study, using a mapping population of 500 F1 individuals from a cross between Xushu 18 (female) and Xu 781 (male), we constructed a high-density genetic linkage map of sweetpotato using 601 simple-sequence repeat (SSR) primer pairs. The Xushu 18 map contained 90 linkage groups with 5547 SSR markers and spanned 18,263.5 cM, and the Xu 781 map contained 90 linkage groups with 4599 SSR markers and spanned 18,043.7 cM, representing the highest genome coverage yet reported for sweetpotato. We identified 33 QTL for storage-root yield and 16 QTL for dry-matter content, explaining respectively 6.5%–47.5% and 3.2%–18.9% of variation. These results provide a foundation for fine-mapping and cloning of QTL and for marker-assisted breeding in sweetpotato.