Eggplant is an important horticultural crop and one of the most widely grown vegetables in the Solanaceae family. Eggplant fruit-related agronomic traits are complex quantitative traits with low efficiency and long cycle time for traditional breeding selection. With the rapid development of high-throughput sequencing technology and bioinformatics tools, genome-wide association study (GWAS) has shown great application potential in analyzing the genetic rules of complex agronomic traits related to eggplant fruits. This paper first reviews the progress of genome-wide association analysis in eggplant fruit shape, fruit color and other fruit-related agronomic traits. Subsequently, aiming at the problem of missing heritability, which is common in the genetic studies of eggplant quantitative traits, this paper puts forward the development strategies of eggplant GWAS in the future based on the hot spots of application of four GWAS strategies in the research of agronomics traits related to eggplant fruits. Lastly, the application of GWAS strategy in the field of eggplant molecular breeding is expected to provide a theoretical basis and reference for the future use of GWAS to analyze the genetic basis of various eggplant fruit-related traits and to select fruit materials that meet consumer needs.
Solanum melongena/genetics* ; Fruit/genetics* ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Plant Breeding ; Agriculture ; Vegetables

TCP (teosinte branched1/cincinnata/proliferating cell factor) is a group of plant-specific transcription factors that play important roles in plant growth and development. To date, there are no report about TCP transcription factors in eggplant (Solanum melongena L). In this study, twenty-nine eggplant TCP (SmTCP) family genes distributed on 11 chromosomes were identified from the genome database of eggplant using bioinformatics methods. The results showed that all members of the family contained sequences encoding TCP conserved domains with length of amino acids ranging from 201 to 538 and exon numbers of 1 or 2. Subcellular localization revealed that three SmTCP proteins (SmTCP02/03/21) were located in the cytoplasm and the other SmTCP proteins were located in the nucleus. The 29 TCP transcription factors were divided into ClassⅠ (PCF) and ClassⅡ (CIN and CYC/TB1) by phylogenetic tree and sequence analysis. Collinearity analysis showed that 17 pairs (21) of SmTCP genes had collinearity, and these collinearity genes belonged to segmental duplication. Analysis of gene expression patterns showed that all 29 members of SmTCP gene family were expressed in 15 tissues or organs, but the expression patterns were different. Among them, four gene (SmTCP18/19/20/25) of CIN subfamily were highly expressed in leaves at different growth stages. Analysis of cis-acting elements in the promoter region of SmTCP showed that there were four types of cis-acting elements, which were light response related cis-acting elements, growth and development related cis-acting elements, hormone response related cis-acting elements and stress related cis-acting elements. In summary, the molecular basis of SmTCP genes in eggplant and the influence of TCP gene on the growth and development of eggplant provided a theoretical basis for molecular breeding of eggplant.
Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Phylogeny ; Plant Proteins/metabolism* ; Solanum melongena/metabolism* ; Transcription Factors/metabolism*