Pangenome analysis reveals the larger peanut genetic keystone

Researchers from Australia and China have identified crucial structural variations that determine the size and weight of seeds in peanuts, paving the way for the development of higher yield varieties.

Composed of researchers from Murdoch University, Henan agricultural university, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the team of scientists has brought together a peanut pangenome which will serve as a fundamental resource for the genetic improvement of legume crops.

The study, published in Nature geneticsEvaluated the diversity at the genome scale of 269 peanut accessions, including wild species, varied varieties and improved species. The researchers have found significant genomic variations and highlighted variations linked to the features that affect the size and weight of the seeds, two of the most critical features that affect peanut yield.

The study retraced the evolution of domesticated peanut varieties of their wild parents, discovering that the gene probably responsible for regulating cell division – and therefore the size of the yield – was absent in the 61 wild species analyzed.

In a first revolutionary, researchers also discovered that the AHARF2-2 gene negatively regulates the size of the seeds and that the suppression of this gene makes the seeds larger.

Speaking on the results, Professor Rajeev Varshney, director of the Center for Crop and Food Innovation at the University of Murdoch and the corresponding author of the study, said: “Despite the global importance of peanuts, our understanding of molecular mechanisms and evolutionary factors that influence the size and weight of peanut pods have been very limited.

“This study offers the most complete genomic variation resource of peanuts to date and will be an invaluable tool for peanut reproduction efforts and cultures reproduction in the future.”

The pro-vice chancellor of Murdoch University and director of the Food Futures Institute, Professor Peter Davies, added: “This research is a remarkable achievement which offers in-depth information on structural variations and molecular mechanisms which are responsible for the size of the seeds and the weight. What makes this particularly exciting is that it offers new information.”