Association Mapping of Some Agronomic Traits of Apple Accessions Belonging to Different Species Collected from Natural Populations of Kyrgyzstan

BackgroundGenetic diversity is the main source of variability in any crop improvement program. It serves as a reservoir for identifying superior alleles controlling key agronomic and quality traits through allele mining/association mapping. Association mapping based on LD (Linkage dis-equilibrium), non-random associations between causative loci and phenotype in natural population is highly useful in dissecting out genetic basis of complex traits. For any successful association mapping program, understanding the population structure and assessing the kinship relatedness is essential before making correlation between superior alleles and traits. The present study was aimed at evaluating the genetic variation and population structure in a collection of 192 rice germplasm lines including local landraces, improved varieties and exotic lines from diverse origin.ResultsA set of 192 diverse rice germplasm lines were genotyped using 61 genome wide SSR markers to assess the molecular genetic diversity and genetic relatedness. Genotyping of 192 rice lines using 61 SSRs produced a total of 205 alleles with the PIC value of 0.756. Population structure analysis using model based and distance based approaches revealed that the germplasm lines were grouped into two distinct subgroups. AMOVA analysis has explained that 14 % of variation was due to difference between with the remaining 86 % variation may be attributed by difference within groups.ConclusionsBased on these above analysis viz., population structure and genetic relatedness, a core collection of 150 rice germplasm lines were assembled as an association mapping panel for establishing marker trait associations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12284-015-0062-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Comprehensive insights on association mapping in perennial fruit crops breeding – Its implications, current status and future perspectives

As the sole plant source of many potent alkaloids, opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) is an important medicinal crop. Nevertheless, few studies have characterized opium poppy germplasm with crop-specific molecular markers. Because Turkey is a diversity center for opium poppy, Turkish germplasm is a valuable genetic resource for association mapping studies aimed at identifying QTLs controlling morphine content and agronomic traits. In this study, the morphological diversity and molecular diversity of 103 Turkish opium poppy landraces and 15 cultivars were analyzed. Potentially useful morphological variation was observed for morphine content, plant height, and capsule index. However, the landraces exhibited limited breeding potential for stigma number, and seed and straw yields. Both morphological and molecular analyses showed distinct clustering of cultivars and landraces. In addition, a total of 164 SSR and 367 AFLP polymorphic loci were applied to an opium poppy association mapping panel composed of 95 opium poppy landraces which were grown for two seasons. One SSR and three AFLP loci were found to be significantly associated with morphine content (P < 0.01 and LD value (r 2) = 0.10–0.32), and six SSR and 14 AFLP loci were significantly associated with five agronomic traits (plant height, stigma number, capsule index, and seed and straw yields) (P < 0.01 and LD value (r 2) = 0.08–0.35). This is the first report of association mapping in this crop. The identified markers provide initial information for marker-assisted selection of important traits in opium poppy breeding.

Extensive phenotypic variation is a common feature among village chickens found throughout much of the developing world, and in traditional chicken breeds that have been artificially selected for traits such as plumage variety. We present here an assessment of traditional and village chicken populations, for fine mapping of Mendelian traits using genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping while providing information on their genetic structure and diversity. Bayesian clustering analysis reveals two main genetic backgrounds in traditional breeds, Kenyan, Ethiopian and Chilean village chickens. Analysis of linkage disequilibrium (LD) reveals useful LD (r(2) ≥ 0.3) in both traditional and village chickens at pairwise marker distances of ~10 Kb; while haplotype block analysis indicates a median block size of 11-12 Kb. Association mapping yielded refined mapping intervals for duplex comb (Gga 2:38.55-38.89 Mb) and rose comb (Gga 7:18.41-22.09 Mb) phenotypes in traditional breeds. Combined mapping information from traditional breeds and Chilean village chicken allows the oocyan phenotype to be fine mapped to two small regions (Gga 1:67.25-67.28 Mb, Gga 1:67.28-67.32 Mb) totalling ~75 Kb. Mapping the unmapped earlobe pigmentation phenotype supports previous findings that the trait is sex-linked and polygenic. A critical assessment of the number of SNPs required to map simple traits indicate that between 90 and 110K SNPs are required for full genome-wide analysis of haplotype block structure/ancestry, and for association mapping in both traditional and village chickens. Our results demonstrate the importance and uniqueness of phenotypic diversity and genetic structure of traditional chicken breeds for fine-scale mapping of Mendelian traits in the species, with village chicken populations providing further opportunities to enhance mapping resolutions.

One of the important methods for the study of quantitative traits is the association mapping through the use of phenotypic information and molecular markers. This study was carried out to examine the contrastive relationship between the biochemical and agronomic traits in tea accessions at the molecular level via association mapping and genetic diversity. In this study, 22 tea accessions were studied in an RCBD with two replications in 2017. Analysis of variance showed a significant difference between the accessions for the studied traits. Cluster analysis classified tea accessions into three groups based on the quantitative traits as well as DNA markers (SCoT and ISSR). Based on the Bayesian model, the tea accessions were classified into four subpopulations. In order to identify the molecular markers associated with the genes controlling traits variation, association mapping was carried out via two mixed linear models (MLM). Based on (G + P+K) and (G + P+Q + K) MLM models, 47 and 71 QTLs were identified for the studied traits, respectively. The SCoT4-1 locus was common between the four traits of chlorophyll a (CA), chlorophyll b (CB), total chlorophyll (CT) and leaf yield (LY) in both models. Also, the results showed that the development of STS and CAPS markers based on the identified markers can be used in breeding programs.

Association mapping is a method to test the association between molecular markers and quantitative trait loci (QTL) based on linkage disequilibrium (LD). In this study, the collection of 108 wheat germplasm accessions form China were evaluated for their plant heights, spike length, spikelets per spike, grains per spike, thousand kernel weight and spikelets density in 3 years at three locations. And they were genotyped with 85 SSR markers and 40 EST-SSR markers. The population structure was inferred on the basis of unlinked 48 SSR markers and 40 EST-SSR markers. The extent of LD on chromosome 2A was 2.3 cM. Association of 37 SSR loci on chromosomes 2A with six agronomic traits was analysed with a mixed linear model. A total of 14 SSR loci were significantly associated with agronomic traits. Some of the associated markers were located in the QTL region detected in previous linkage mapping analysis. Our results demonstrated that association mapping can enhance QTL information and achieves higher resolution with short LD extent.

Genome-wide association mapping studies (GWAS) are frequently used to detect QTL in diverse collections of crop germplasm, based on historic recombination events and linkage disequilibrium across the genome. Generally, diversity panels genotyped with high density SNP panels are utilized in order to assay a wide range of alleles and haplotypes and to monitor recombination breakpoints across the genome. By contrast, GWAS have not generally been performed in breeding populations. In this study we performed association mapping for 19 agronomic traits including yield and yield components in a breeding population of elite irrigated tropical rice breeding lines so that the results would be more directly applicable to breeding than those from a diversity panel. The population was genotyped with 71,710 SNPs using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), and GWAS performed with the explicit goal of expediting selection in the breeding program. Using this breeding panel we identified 52 QTL for 11 agronomic traits, including large effect QTLs for flowering time and grain length/grain width/grain-length-breadth ratio. We also identified haplotypes that can be used to select plants in our population for short stature (plant height), early flowering time, and high yield, and thus demonstrate the utility of association mapping in breeding populations for informing breeding decisions. We conclude by exploring how the newly identified significant SNPs and insights into the genetic architecture of these quantitative traits can be leveraged to build genomic-assisted selection models.

Molecular diversity and association mapping of fiber quality traits in exotic G. hirsutum L. germplasm

BackgroundAquaculture is the quickest growing sector in agriculture. However, QTL for important traits have been only identified in a few aquaculture species. We conducted QTL mapping for growth traits in an Asian seabass F2 family with 359 individuals using 123 microsatellites and 22 SNPs, and performed association mapping in four populations with 881 individuals.ResultsTwelve and nine significant QTL, as well as 14 and 10 suggestive QTL were detected for growth traits at six and nine months post hatch, respectively. These QTL explained 0.9-12.0% of the phenotypic variance. For body weight, two QTL intervals at two stages were overlapped while the others were mapped onto different positions. The IFABP-a gene located in a significant QTL interval for growth on LG5 was cloned and characterized. A SNP in exon 3 of the gene was significantly associated with growth traits in different populations.ConclusionsThe results of QTL mapping for growth traits suggest that growth at different stages was controlled by some common QTL and some different QTL. Positional candidate genes and association mapping suggest that the IFABP-a is a strong candidate gene for growth. Our data supply a basis for fine mapping QTL, marker-assisted selection and further detailed analysis of the functions of the IFABP-a gene in fish growth.

Drought causes serious yield losses in cotton production throughout the world. Association mapping allows identification and localization of the genes controlling drought-related traits which will be helpful in cotton breeding. In the present study, genetic diversity analysis and association mapping of yield and drought traits were performed on a panel of 99 upland cotton genotypes using 177 SSR (simple sequence repeat) markers. Yield parameters and drought tolerance-related traits were evaluated for two seasons under two watering regimes: water-stressed and well-watered. The traits included seed cotton yield (SCY), lint yield (LY), lint percentage (LP), water-use efficiency (WUE), yield potential (YP), yield reduction (YR), yield index (YI), drought sensitivity index (DSI), stress tolerance index (STI), harmonic mean (HM), and geometric mean productivity (GMP). The genotypes with the least change in seed cotton yield under drought stress were Zeta 2, Delcerro, Nazilli 87, and DAK 66/3 which were also the most water-use efficient cultivars. The average genetic diversity of the panel was 0.38. The linkage disequilibrium decayed relatively rapidly at 20–30 cM (r2 ≥ 0.5). We identified 30 different SSR markers associated with the traits. Fifteen and 23 SSR markers were linked to the traits under well-watered and water-stress conditions, respectively. To our knowledge, most of these quantitative yield and drought tolerance-associated loci were newly identified. The genetic diversity and association mapping results should facilitate the development of drought-tolerant cotton lines with high yield in molecular breeding programs.

High prices of fish oil make linseed attractive for aquaculture and animal feed. To ensure a constant supply of linseed, the development of stable cultivars is of strategic importance. In this study, 35 linseed genotypes were evaluated in five Chilean environments (E) from 2009 to 2012. The additive main effect and multiplicative interaction analysis (AMMI), genotype (G) plus genotype by environment (GE) interaction (GGE) biplot analysis and three stability parameters were tested with the aim of identifying adapted genotypes for the development of linseed cultivars. An association mapping (AM) analysis was also conducted for four agronomic traits and the stability of the associated markers was evaluated using the QQE (QTL main effect and QTL by environment interaction) approach. Combined analysis of variance for yield, seeds per boll (SPB), plant height (PH) and days to flowering (DTF) were significant for G, E and GE (P < 0.001). The combined stability analysis identified some Canadian, Argentinean and Chilean accessions to be the best adapted and highest yielding genotypes. Coancestry analysis indicated that crossing Canadian and Chilean genotypes could maximize transgressive segregation for yield. Significant associations for DTF, PH and SPB explained up to 59 % of the phenotypic variation for these traits. The QQE and AM analyses were consistent in identifying marker LGM27B as the most stable and significant across all environments with the largest effect in reducing DTF. The combined application of the stability, AM and QQE analyses could accelerate the development of marketable linseed cultivars adapted to Southern Chile.

Genetic mapping is an essential tool for cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) molecular breeding and application of DNA markers for cotton improvement. In this present study, we evaluated an RI population including 188 RI lines developed from 94 F2-derived families and their two parental lines, ‘HS 46’ and ‘MARCABUCAG8US-1-88’, at Mississippi State, MS, for two years. Fourteen agronomic and fiber traits were measured. One hundred forty one (141) polymorphic SSR markers were screened for this population and 125 markers were used to construct a linkage map. Twenty six linkage groups were constructed, covering 125 SSR loci and 965 cM of overall map distance. Twenty four linkage groups (115 SSR loci) were assigned to specific chromosomes. Quantitative genetic analysis showed that the genotypic effects accounted for more than 20% of the phenotypic variation for all traits except fiber perimeter (18%). Fifty six QTLs (LOD > 3.0) associated with 14 agronomic and fiber traits were located on 17 chromosomes. One QTL associated with fiber elongation was located on linkage group LGU01. Nine chromosomes in sub-A genome harbored 27 QTLs with 10 associated with agronomic traits and 17 with fiber traits. Eight chromosomes in D sub-genome harbored 29 QTLs with 13 associated with agronomic traits and 16 with fiber traits. Chromosomes 3, 5, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, and 26 harbor important QTLs for both yield and fiber quality compared to other chromosomes. Since this RI population was developed from an intraspecific cross within upland cotton, these QTLs should be useful for marker assisted selection for improving breeding efficiency in cotton line development.

RAD-seq method is a recently developed, cost-effective, and high-throughput approach for detecting genetic variability based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and high-density genetic map. This study aimed to construct the quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping for yield-associated agronomic traits in rice using a BC2F6 population which was derived from japonica hybrid rice Liaoyou 5218. Liaoyou 5218 were firstly crossed to female parent 5216A, and the subsequent self-crossed BC1F6 population was backcrossed to 5216A. The 167 BC2F6 breeding lines showed different agronomic traits from parental Liaoyou 5218 and C418. RAD-seq and bioinformatics methods were used to identify high-quality SNPs in the 167 BC2F6 breeding lines, which generated 40968 SNP markers on 12 chromosomes in rice. Linkage and QTL mapping was constructed, and 14 QTLs related to 6 agronomic traits were identified, including 4, 3, and 4 QTLs on chr03, 09, and 10, respectively. Among the yield-associated QTLs mapping genes, ITPK3 and EGY3 were related to plant height; CYP724B1, GAPC2, TRS120, BADH1, AOX1a, AOX1b, and COLD1 were associated with average panicle length; ACT2 and BAMY1 were associated with 1000-grain weight and tiller number per plant, respectively. We suggested that the 14 QTLs in the BC2F6 breeding lines derived from Liaoyou 5218 might be of important values for the identification and marker-assisted selection of candidate genes in rice breeding.

Increasing scarcity of water has threatened the sustainability of the irrigated rice production system and hence the food security and livelihood of rice producers. Experiments were conducted to study the correlation and QTL mapping for yield, root-related and agronomic traits under aerobic conditions using MASARB25 × Pusa Basmati 1460 F3 mapping population. Yield of aerobic rice variety MASARB25 was 9–12.3% higher than Basmati rice variety Pusa Basmati 1460. MASARB25 had 9.32% higher root length, 11.76% higher fresh root weight, 19.98% higher dry root weight as compared to Pusa Basmati 1460. A total of 15 QTLs associated with 10 traits were mapped on chromosomes 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 11. qGY8.1 with an R2 value of 36.3% and qGY2.1 with an R2 value of 29% and qRL8.1 with an R2 value of 27.2% were identified for root length indicating the role of root traits in improving grain yield under water limited conditions. A positive correlation was found between root traits and yield under aerobic conditions. Breeding lines with higher yield per plant, root length, dry root biomass, length-breadth ratio, and with Pusa Basmati 1460-specific alleles in a homozygous or heterozygous condition at the BAD2 locus were identified that will serve as novel material for the selection of stable aerobic Basmati rice breeding lines.

Understanding genetic diversity, population structure, and linkage disequilibrium is a prerequisite for the association mapping of complex traits in a target population. In this study, the genetic diversity and population structure of 40 waxy and 40 normal inbred maize lines were investigated using 10 morphological traits and 200 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Based on a population structure analysis, the 80 maize inbred lines were divided into three groups: I, II, and admixed. Significant marker-trait associations were identified between the markers and the 10 morphological traits, which were studied according to the model used to confirm the association. Using a general linear model, the lowest R(2) value (9.03) was detected in umc1139, which was associated with ear number, and the highest (43.97) was in umc1858, which was associated with plant height. Using a mixed linear model, the lowest R(2) value (18.74) was in umc1279, which was associated with ear weight; the highest (27.66) was in umc1858, which was associated with 100-kernel weight. The SSR markers identified in the present study may serve as useful molecular markers for selecting important yield and agronomic traits. These results will be useful for marker-assisted selection in maize breeding programs, to help breeders choose parental lines and markers for crosses.