Cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oil and cash crop. Pod size is one of the major traits determining yield and commodity characteristic of peanut. Fine mapping of quantitative trait locus (QTL) and identification of candidate genes associated with pod size are essential for genetic improvement and molecular breeding of peanut varieties. In this study, a major QTL related to pod size, qAHPS07, was fine mapped to a 36.46 kb interval on chromosome A07 using F₂, recombinant inbred line (RIL) and secondary F₂ populations. qAHPS07 explained 38.6%, 23.35%, 37.48%, 25.94% of the phenotypic variation for single pod weight (SPW), pod length (PL), pod width (PW) and pod shell thickness (PST), respectively. Whole genome resequencing and gene expression analysis revealed that a RuvB-like 2 protein coding gene AhRUVBL2 was the most likely candidate for qAHPS07. Overexpression of AhRUVBL2 in Arabidopsis led to larger seeds and plants than the wild type. AhRUVBL2-silenced peanut seedlings represented small leaves and shorter main stems. Three haplotypes were identified according to three SNPs in the promoter of AhRUVBL2 among 119 peanut accessions. Among them, SPW, PW and PST of accessions carrying Hap_ATT represent 17.6%, 11.2% and 26.3% higher than those carrying Hap_GAC，respectively. In addition, a functional marker of AhRUVBL2 was developed. Taken together, our study identified a key functional gene of peanut pod size, which provides new insights into peanut pod size regulation mechanism and offers practicable markers for the genetic improvement of pod size-related traits in peanut breeding.

中文翻译：

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qAHPS07 的精细定位和 AhRUVBL2 控制花生 (Arachishypogaea L.) 荚果大小的功能研究

栽培花生（ArachishypogaeaL .）是重要的油料和经济作物。荚果大小是决定花生产量和商品特性的主要性状之一。数量性状基因座（QTL）的精细定位和与豆荚大小相关的候选基因的鉴定对于花生品种的遗传改良和分子育种至关重要。在本研究中，使用F ₂、重组自交系(RIL)和次生F ₂群体，将与荚果大小相关的主要QTL qAHPS07精细定位到染色体A07上的36.46 kb间隔。qAHPS07分别解释了单荚重（SPW）、荚长（PL）、荚宽（PW）和荚壳厚度（PST）表型变异的38.6%、23.35%、37.48%和25.94%。全基因组重测序和基因表达分析表明，RuvB 样 2 蛋白编码基因AhRUVBL2是qAHPS07最有可能的候选基因。AhRUVBL2在拟南芥中的过度表达导致比野生型更大的种子和植物。AhRUVBL2-沉默的花生幼苗代表小叶子和较短的主茎。根据119份花生材料中AhRUVBL2启动子的3个SNP位点，鉴定出3个单倍型。其中，携带Hap_ATT的材料的SPW、PW和PST分别比携带Hap_GAC的材料高17.6%、11.2%和26.3% 。此外，还开发了AhRUVBL2的功能标记。综上所述，我们的研究确定了花生荚果大小的关键功能基因，为花生荚果大小调控机制提供了新的见解，并为花生育种中荚果大小相关性状的遗传改良提供了实用的标记。