# Screening of a core SNP set for the seedling identification of Saccharina japonica cultivars in northern China

## TL;DR

This study identifies a set of 247 core SNPs to accurately distinguish four important kelp cultivars in northern China.

## Contribution

A highly informative and uniformly distributed core SNP set for cultivar identification in Saccharina japonica is developed.

## Key findings

- A core set of 247 SNPs was identified from 441,094 SNPs for cultivar differentiation.
- The core SNPs showed significant linear correlation with total SNPs (r = 0.99, P < 0.01).
- The SNP set provides a reliable tool for germplasm identification in Saccharina japonica.

## Abstract

Kelp is an economically important seaweed species in China. The verification of Saccharina japonica cultivars is crucial for industrial development. Four Saccharina japonica cultivars with distinctive characteristics that are widely used in China were selected. To distinguish these cultivars, a highly informative core SNP marker set was identified and validated from 441,094 SNPs. The marker set consisted of 247 core SNPs that were uniformly distributed and were abundant polymorphisms. The similarity between samples was calculated using both core and total SNPs, and a significant linear correlation (P < 0.01) was observed, with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.99. These results provide a valuable SNP set for distinguishing the germplasms of four Saccharina japonica cultivars and serve as a reference for variety differentiation.