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Title: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF QTLS AFFECTING PLANT HEIGHT AND FLOWERING AMONG CLOSELY-RELATED DIPLOID AND POLYPLOID GENOMES

Author
item MING, RAY - HARC
item DEL MONTE, TERRYE - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
item HERNANDEZ, EDUARDO - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
item Moore, Paul
item IRVINE, JAMES - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
item PATERSON, ANDREW - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

Submitted to: Genome
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/20/2002
Publication Date: 10/20/2002
Citation: GENOME, VOL. 45, PGS. 794-803.

Interpretive Summary: Most crop traits contributing to yield are the product of a number of genes (quantitative trait loci) whose expression is influenced by the environment and thus are extremely difficult for which to breed and select improved varieties, especially for genetically complex crops as sugarcane. A collaborative research project involving private and public scientists in Hawaii, Texas, and Georgia produced quantitative trait genetic maps for sugarcane and compared sugarcane results with those of diploid sorghum. The present research demonstrates that genetically simpler sorghum can be used as a model for directed breeding and selection of sugarcane. These results will be applied by sugarcane breeders for developing more efficient breeding and selection programs.

Technical Abstract: Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting plant height and flowering were studied in the two Saccharum species from which modern sugarcane cultivars are derived. Two segregating populations derived from interspecific crosses between Saccharum officinarum and Saccharum spontaneum were genotyped with 735 DNA markers. Among the 65 significant associations found between these two traits and DNA markers, 35 of the loci were linked to sugarcane genetic maps and 30 were unlinked DNA markers. Twenty-one of the 35 mapped QTLs were clustered in eight genomic regions of six sugarcane homologous groups. Some of these could be divergent alleles at homologous loci, making the actual number of genes implicated in these traits much less than 35. Four QTL clusters controlling plant height in sugarcane corresponded closely to four of the six plant-height QTLs previously mapped in sorghum. One QTL controlling flowering in sugarcane corresponded to one of three flowering QTLs mapped in sorghum. The correspondence in locations of QTLs affecting plant height and flowering in sugarcane and sorghum reinforce the notion that the simple sorghum genome is a valuable "template" for molecular dissection of the much more complex sugarcane genome.