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European hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) is an important tree nut crop. Hazelnut production in North America is currently limited in scalability due to Anisogramma anomala, a fungal pathogen that causes Eastern Filbert Blight (EFB) disease in hazelnut. Successful deployment of EFB resistant cultivars has been limited to the state of Oregon, where the breeding program at Oregon State University (OSU) has released cultivars with a dominant allele at a single resistance locus identified by classical breeding, linkage mapping, and molecular markers. C. avellana cultivar "Jefferson" is resistant to the predominant EFB biotype in Oregon and has been selected by the OSU breeding program as a model for hazelnut genetic and genomic research. Here, we present a near complete, haplotype-resolved chromosome-level hazelnut genome assembly for "Jefferson". This new assembly is a significant improvement over a previously published genome draft. Analysis of genomic regions linked to EFB resistance and self-incompatibility confirmed haplotype splitting and identified new gene candidates that are essential for downstream molecular marker development, thereby facilitating breeding efforts., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest The author(s) declare no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Genetics Society of America.)

Commercial production of hazelnut ( Corylus avellana ) in Oregon's Willamette Valley is threatened by eastern filbert blight (EFB), a serious canker disease caused by the pyrenomycete Anisogramma anomala (Peck) E. Müller. The fungus also prevents the establishment of hazelnut orchards in eastern North America. Genetic resistance is considered the most effective way to control the disease. A high level of EFB resistance was first discovered in 'Gasaway'. This resistance is conferred by a dominant allele at a single locus on linkage group 6 (LG6). Resistance from several additional sources has been assigned to the same chromosomal region. In this study, new simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed for the resistance region on LG6 and new sources of resistance were investigated. Forty-two new SSR markers were developed from four contigs in the genome sequence of 'Jefferson' hazelnut, characterized, and nine of them were placed on LG6 of the genetic map. Accessions representing 12 new sources of EFB resistance were crossed with susceptible selections resulting in 18 seedling populations. Segregation ratios in the seedling populations fit the expected 1:1 ratio for 10 sources, while one source showed an excess of resistant seedlings and another showed an excess of susceptible seedlings. Based on correlation of disease response and scores of SSR markers in the 'Gasaway' resistance region in the seedlings, eight resistance sources were assigned to LG6. Linkage maps were constructed for each progeny using SSR markers. The LG6 resistance sources include two selections (#23 and #26) from the Russian Research Institute of Forestry and Mechanization near Moscow, four selections from southern Russia, one selection (OSU 1185.126) from Crimea, one selection (OSU 533.129) from Michigan, Corylus heterophylla 'Ogyoo' from the South Korea, and the interspecific hybrid 'Estrella #1'. These new LG6 resistance sources and SSR markers should be useful in breeding new cultivars, including the pyramiding of resistance genes. For the other four resistance sources (Moscow #37, hybrid selection OSU 401.014, C. americana 'Winkler' and C. americana OSU 366.060), SSR marker scores on linkage groups 6, 7 and 2 were not correlated with disease response and merit further investigation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Komaei Koma, Şekerli, Snelling and Mehlenbacher.)