Abstract
BackgroundLow temperatures decrease the capacity for biomass production and lead to growth retardation up to irreversible cellular damage in modern maize cultivars. European flint landraces are an untapped genetic resource for genes and alleles conferring cold tolerance which they acquired during their adaptation to the agroecological conditions in Europe.ResultsBased on a phenotyping experiment of 276 doubled haploid lines derived from the European flint landrace “Petkuser Ferdinand Rot” diverging for cold tolerance, we selected 21 of these lines for an RNA-seq experiment. The different genotypes showed highly variable transcriptomic responses to cold. We identified 148, 3254 and 563 genes differentially expressed with respect to cold treatment, cold tolerance and growth rate at cold, respectively. Gene ontology (GO) term enrichment demonstrated that the detoxification of reactive oxygen species is associated with cold tolerance, whereas amino acids might play a crucial role as antioxidant precursors and signaling molecules.ConclusionDoubled haploids representing a European maize flint landrace display genotype-specific transcriptome patterns associated with cold response, cold tolerance and seedling growth rate at cold. Identification of cold regulated genes in European flint germplasm, could be a starting point for introgressing such alleles in modern breeding material for maize improvement.
Highlights
Low temperatures decrease the capacity for biomass production and lead to growth retardation up to irreversible cellular damage in modern maize cultivars
We hypothesized that European maize landraces display substantial variation for cold tolerance carrying beneficial alleles for this trait which might not be present in elite material
Identification of cold tolerant and susceptible maize genotypes from doubled haploid lines derived from the flint landrace Petkuser Ferdinand rot European elite maize germplasm shows only limited variation for the response to cold stress during early seedling development whereas European flint landraces harbor a high genetic diversity for cold tolerance. To untap this underutilized genetic resource, we screened 276 doubled haploid (DH) lines induced from the flint landrace ‘Petkuser Ferdinand rot’ for the growth response of primary roots to cold
Summary
Low temperatures decrease the capacity for biomass production and lead to growth retardation up to irreversible cellular damage in modern maize cultivars. European flint landraces are an untapped genetic resource for genes and alleles conferring cold tolerance which they acquired during their adaptation to the agroecological conditions in Europe. Maize has been adapted to a variety of environmental conditions, traits such as disease, insect resistance and abiotic stress tolerance can be further improved in elite germplasm subjected to a rapidly changing climate [4]. Since the introduction of maize in Europe, geographical separation and natural as well as human selection led to a diversification of landraces. Due to its tropical origin, the optimum temperature for maize growth ranges from 21 to 27 °C [9]. Suboptimal temperatures decrease the capacity for biomass production
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