Abstract: To examine the quantitative genetic mechanism of vase life of cut chrysanthemum，with the attention of future genetic improvement，80 cut chrysanthemum cultivars and the previously established‘Nannong Xuefeng’בMonalisa’F1 mapping population were used to investigate phenotypic variation of vase life. Genome-wide association analysis and QTL mapping were performed to dissect the genetic control of vase life. The results showed that 80 cut chrysanthemum varieties varied in a range of 20–58 d for vase life with a coefficient of variation 17.96%. The vase life in the F1 population ranged between 24–56 d in a normal distribution，and some transgressive individuals were observed in both directions. The mixed linear model（MLM）based association analysis detected six marker sites significantly associated with the vase life，with phenotypic contribution rate ranging from 8.67% to 11.26%. Markers SSR131-3，SSR149-4 and SSR150-5 showed a phenotypic contribution rate > 10% and thus should be main-effect alleles. QTL mapping identified two QTLs（qVLX2-1 and qVLX2-2）for vase life at the X2 linkage group of‘Nannong Xuefeng’genetic map at LOD ≥ 2.5，and the additive effects and contribution ratio were calculated at 11.60 d and 10.86 d，6.34% and 3.15%，respectively.

Key words: chrysanthemum, cut flower, vase life, association analysis, QTL mapping, genetic variation