Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a popular fruit produced widely along tropical climates for fresh consumption. In this study, mature fruits from a collection of 189 mango cultivars were evaluated for fruit weight and sugar content at horticultural maturity. Subsequently, a total of 10958 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) generated through genotyping by sequencing (GBS) were used to identify quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) associated with fruit weight and sugar content through genome wide association studies (GWAS). Fruit weight over three seasons averaged 454 g. ‘Lancetilla’ and ‘Webber’ cultivars produced the heaviest fruits averaging 1127.5 g and 1108.5 g respectively and the lowest average fruit weights (166.16 g, 184.5 g, and 189.5 g) were observed in ‘Itamaraca’, ‘13-1' and ‘Fralan’ cultivars respectively. The mango cultivars had a mean degrees Brix (°Bx) value of 14.8 with ‘Venus,’ ‘Peach Cobbler’ and ‘Julie’ displaying the highest degrees Brix (°Bx) values of 25.6, 22.4 and 20.6 respectively. Three QTNs in chromosomes 5, 8 and 10 were significantly associated with fruit weight using Fixed and random model Circulating Probability Unification (FarmCPU) association model, while two QTNs in chromosome 2 and chromosome 20 were significantly associated with sugar content using Bayesian-information, Linkage-disequilibrium Iteratively Nested Keyway (BLINK) model. Genetic characterization of loci associated with these two traits in mango provides a solid foundation for SNP marker assisted selection (MAS) to accelerate molecular screening of segregating populations and germplasm in a mango breeding program.
