ARS | Publication request: Update on Production of Recombinant Inbred Lines

Submitted to: Annual Beet Sugar Development Foundation Research Report
Publication Type: Research Notes
Publication Acceptance Date: May 15, 2010
Publication Date: June 1, 2010
Citation: McGrath, J.M. 2010. Update on Production of Recombinant Inbred Lines [CD-ROM]. 2010 Annual Beet Sugar Development Foundation Research Report. Denver, Colorado: Beet Sugar Development Foundation.

Technical Abstract: Sugarbeet seed was obtained by bagging individual field-grown mother roots in the greenhouse after transplanting and vernalizing roots in 1 gallon pressed peat pots. For each field generation, 3 to 10 roots from progeny of a single plant of the previous generation were selected for seed advance. Thus, at each generation the population size was 128 plants in the F2, 226 in the F3, 416 for the F4, 695 in the F5, and 336 individual seed accessions in the current F6 RIL population (which itself represents only half of the F5 population). Heterozygosity is expected to be reduced by half with each selfing generation, thus each F6 plant arising from the RILs is expected to be fixed at ~97% of loci, with most loci present in the original population present in one or more inbred lines. Some well-known genes, such as the red locus and the self-fertility locus, are still segregating in a small subset of F6 RILs. Seed set has been highly variable, with yields from single plants ranging from <5 seeds to ~25 grams, with useful quantities of seed (for agronomic purposes, >5 grams) obtained from two thirds of the population.