Abstract
BackgroundMiscanthus, which is a leading dedicated-energy grass in Europe and in parts of Asia, is expected to play a key role in the development of the future bioeconomy. However, due to its complex genetic background, it is difficult to investigate phylogenetic relationships in this genus. Here, we investigated 50 Miscanthus germplasms: 1 female parent (M. lutarioriparius), 30 candidate male parents (M. lutarioriparius, M. sinensis, and M. sacchariflorus), and 19 offspring. We used high-throughput Specific-Locus Amplified Fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq) to identify informative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in all germplasms.ResultsWe identified 257,889 SLAF tags, of which 87,162 were polymorphic. Each tag was 264–364 bp long. The obtained 724,773 population SNPs were used to investigate genetic relationships within three species of Miscanthus. We constructed a phylogenetic tree of the 50 germplasms using the obtained SNPs and grouped them into two clades: one clade comprised of M. sinensis alone and the other one included the offspring, M. lutarioriparius, and M. sacchariflorus. Genetic cluster analysis had revealed that M. lutarioriparius germplasm C3 was the most likely male parent of the offspring.ConclusionsAs a high-throughput sequencing method, SLAF-seq can be used to identify informative SNPs in Miscanthus germplasms and to rapidly characterize genetic relationships within this genus. Our results will support the development of breeding programs with the focus on utilizing Miscanthus cultivars with elite biomass- or fiber-production potential for the developing bioeconomy.
Highlights
Miscanthus, which is a leading dedicated-energy grass in Europe and in parts of Asia, is expected to play a key role in the development of the future bioeconomy
Evaluation of the digestive enzymes Enzyme digestion was performed according to set selection principles which included: a) the proportion of restriction fragment located in the repeat sequence was low; b) the fragments were evenly distributed in the control genome; c) the length of restriction fragment was appropriate for the experimental system; d) the number of SLAF tags was consistent with the expected number of tags
Analysis of the SLAF‐seq and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) data We obtained 57.8 Mb clean sequence reads based on SLAF library construction and high-throughput sequencing
Summary
Miscanthus, which is a leading dedicated-energy grass in Europe and in parts of Asia, is expected to play a key role in the development of the future bioeconomy. Due to its complex genetic background, it is difficult to investigate phylogenetic relationships in this genus. Miscanthus, a high-biomass-yielding perennial C4 grass, has great potential utility for biobased industry [1,2,3,4]. This is a heterogeneous gramineous plant that hybridizes interspecifically and has a complex genetic background. This high degree of genetic diversity increases the complexity of interspecific relationships in the Miscanthus and subsequently makes it challenging to carry out the genetic evolution analyses of this genus
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
