Abstract
Artemisia annua is an important medicinal crop used for the production of the anti-malarial compound artemisinin. In order to assist in the production of affordable high quality artemisinin we have carried out an A. annua breeding programme aimed at improving artemisinin concentration and biomass. Here we report on a combining ability analysis of a diallel cross to identify robust parental lines for hybrid breeding. The parental lines were selected based on a range of phenotypic traits to encourage heterosis. The general combining ability (GCA) values for the diallel parental lines correlated to the positive alleles of quantitative trait loci (QTL) in the same parents indicating the presence of beneficial alleles that contribute to parental performance. Hybrids generated from crossing specific parental lines with good GCA were identified as having an increase in both artemisinin concentration and biomass when grown either in glasshouse or experimental field trials and compared to controls. This study demonstrates that combining ability as determined by a diallel cross can be used to identify elite parents for the production of improved A. annua hybrids. Furthermore, the selection of material for breeding using this approach was found to be consistent with our QTL-based molecular breeding approach.
Highlights
Malaria is a global health problem with more than 1 billion people living in high risk areas
We recently reported the first genetic linkage map for A. annua and described Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) that account for a significant amount of the variation in a number of traits that impact on artemisinin yield, which we calculated as a product of artemisinin concentration and plant fresh weight [12]
Evaluation of FSHY Individuals Genotype (G) and Genotype by Environment (G6E) analysis was carried out on the data collected from field trials conducted in 2008 at York, UK and Conthey, Switzerland with 130 FSHY individuals, including the 30 parental lines that were selected for the diallel cross
Summary
Malaria is a global health problem with more than 1 billion people living in high risk areas. In response to the increasing levels of resistance to many monotherapy treatments the World Health Organisation recommends that artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) should be used as the first-line treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria [1] [2]. The yield of artemisinin produced by A. annua is low, and with increased demand for ACTs, there are concerns that the existing supply chain will be unable to produce consistent, affordable levels of the chemical in the quantities required. One way to increase artemisinin availability is to develop improved varieties of A. annua. These improvements would benefit the existing supply chain by improving confidence in the crop, stabilizing supplies and reducing costs [7]
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