Abstract
Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is attractive to plant scientists as a model plant because of several distinct characteristics, such as its short stature, rapid life cycle, sufficient seed production per plant, self-compatibility, true diploid nature, high photosynthetic efficiency, small genome size, and tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress. However, the study on the genetic resources of foxtail millet largely lag behind those of the other model plants such as Arabidopsis, rice and maize. Mutagenized populations cannot only create new germplasm resources, but also provide materials for gene function research. In this manuscript, an ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-induced foxtail millet population comprising ∼15,000 individual M1 lines was established. Total 1353 independent lines with diverse abnormal phenotypes of leaf color, plant morphologies and panicle shapes were identified in M2. Resequencing of sixteen randomly selected M2 plants showed an average estimated mutation density of 1 loci/213 kb. Moreover, we provided an example for rapid cloning of the WP1 gene by a map-based cloning method. A white panicle mutant, named as wp1.a, exhibited significantly reduced chlorophyll (Chl) and carotenoid contents in leaf and panicle. Map-based cloning results showed an eight-base pair deletion located at the sixth exon of wp1.a in LOC101786849, which caused the premature termination. WP1 encoded phytoene synthase. Moreover, the sequencing analysis and cross test verified that a white panicle mutant wp1.b was an allelic mutant of wp1.a. The filed phenotypic observation and gene cloning example showed that our foxtail millet EMS-induced mutant population would be used as an important resource for functional genomics studies of foxtail millet.
Highlights
Foxtail millet is a member of the Paniceae tribe and came from green millet domestication in northern China about for 8000 years ago (Barton et al, 2009)
Foxtail millet and green foxtail are typical C4 plants, similar to maize, sorghum and sugarcane, and can be a valuable model plant for studies of C4 photosynthesis (Brutnell et al, 2010; Lata et al, 2013; Pant et al, 2016; Huang et al, 2017; Yang et al, 2018). These plants can be used as model systems for panicoid grasses such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) for biofuel studies (Li and Brutnell, 2011; Lata et al, 2013; Pant et al, 2016)
The foxtail millet genome sequence is closely related to several bioenergy crops such as pearl millet, napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)
Summary
Foxtail millet is a member of the Paniceae tribe (subfamily Panicoideae of the Poaceae) and came from green millet domestication in northern China about for 8000 years ago (Barton et al, 2009). Foxtail millet and its ancestor green foxtail (Setaria viridis) became more attractive to plant scientists as an alternative model plant because of several distinct characteristics, such as their short stature, rapid life cycle, sufficient seed production per plant, self-compatibility, true diploid nature (2n = 18), and small genome size (515 and 395 Mb, respectively) (Doust et al, 2009; Li and Brutnell, 2011; Huang et al, 2016; Pant et al, 2016). Foxtail millet and green foxtail are typical C4 plants, similar to maize, sorghum and sugarcane, and can be a valuable model plant for studies of C4 photosynthesis (Brutnell et al, 2010; Lata et al, 2013; Pant et al, 2016; Huang et al, 2017; Yang et al, 2018). The distinct drought tolerant characteristic is very beneficial to dissect the molecular mechanisms for drought tolerance
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