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ARS Home » Midwest Area » East Lansing, Michigan » Sugarbeet and Bean Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #179743
Title: DEVELOPMENT OF RECOMBINANT INBRED LINES (RILS) FOR GENE DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT

Author
item McGrath, Jon
item Koppin, Teresa
item Duckert, Timothy

Submitted to: American Society of Beet Sugar Technologists Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/6/2005
Publication Date: 7/15/2005
Citation: McGrath, J.M., Koppin, T.K., Duckert, T.M. 2005. Development of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) for gene discovery and development. In: Proceedings of the American Society of Beet Sugar Technologists. 33rd Biennial Meeting, March 2-5, 2005, Palm Springs, California. p. 124-132.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Genetic diversity underlies breeding advancement, and selection is the act of concentrating relevant genes (alleles) in populations for ultimate deployment to growers. Measures of genetic diversity indicate perhaps fewer than 25% of the alleles present in Beta vulgaris are present in sugarbeet, suggesting future genetic gains will be found within wild and unadapted germplasm. Germplasm collections exist, but attention to deploying their allelic diversity is stymied, with notable exceptions. Systematic efforts to deploy this germplasm held in public trust are needed, coupled with systematic efforts to identify, map, and catalog relevant agronomic genes. Both objectives can benefit from development of RILs, which represent ‘immortal’ segregating genetic populations. RILs have not been developed for sugarbeet, and their utility lies in the simple (if lengthy) construction process, their defined genetic relationships within populations, their homozygosity which limits phenotypic diversity to environmental variance components, and the ability a single molecular map to phenotypic values from many environments. RILs are derived via single seed decent (facilitated by self-fertility) from an initial segregating population, are highly inbred progeny derived from a single parent, and sample the genetic diversity of parental lines used to construct the hybrid. Our strategy has been to use a common male sterile (nuclear or cytoplasmic) self fertile seed parent (e.g. C869) to which one of 37 pollen donors has been mated to date, generally followed by selection for vigor and fecundity of the F1 hybrid, then by single-seed descent for five generations. As of October 2004, 5,968 S2, 819 S3, 245 S4, and 102 S5 plants are in process. Phenotypic, sucrose, and water content evaluations on one in-process population (C869 X Table beet) indicate the general utility of RILs for genetic analyses, and effectively couples the process of gene discovery with gene deployment in sugarbeet.