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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #315773
Title: Pedigreed mutant library- a unique resource for sorghum improvement and genomics

Author
item Xin, Zhanguo
item JIAO, YINPING - Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
item Burow, Gloria
item Hayes, Chad
item Chen, Junping
item EMANDACK, YVES - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item WARE, DOREEN - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item Burke, John

Submitted to: American Society of Agronomy
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/12/2015
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The book chapter summarized the sorghum mutagenesis works in the last 10 year at the Plant Stress and Germplasm Research Unit at Lubbock, Texas. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is a versatile crop used for food, feeder, fodder, and biofuel. Due to its superior resilience to drought and high temperature stresses and low soil fertility, sorghum is becoming increasingly important in meeting the growing need for food and energy in face of declining arable land and fresh water resources. Low grain yield and poor nutrition quality are two major factors that severely limit the increase in sorghum production. New resources are needed to genetically enhance this crop for multiple uses. We have developed a pedigreed mutant library in BTx623, the reference inbred line for generating the sorghum genome sequence. The library consists of 6,400 M4 seed pools, each of which was derived from an independently EMS-mutated M1 seed through single seed descent. The mutant library displays a wide range of visible phenotypes; and many are beneficial traits that have potential to be used as breeding materials to improve grain yield and quality. A minicore of 256 selected lines was subjected to whole genome sequencing on Illiminia HiSeq2000. About 2.1 million canonical EMS-induced G/C to A/T SNPs were discovered. Over 92% of the genes in the sorghum genome have either nonsynonymous mutation in the exonic or regulatory regions. This pedigreed mutant library will serve as a unique resource for selection of superior agronomic and nutritional traits and identifying their causal mutations for sorghum improvement and for elucidating gene function through isolation of mutant series for genes of interest by reverse genetic techniques.

Technical Abstract: Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is a versatile crop used for food, feeder, fodder, and biofuel. Due to its superior resilience to drought and high temperature stresses and low soil fertility, sorghum is becoming increasingly important in meeting the growing need for food and energy in face of declining arable land and fresh water resources. Low grain yield and poor nutrition quality are two major factors that severely limit the increase in sorghum production. New resources are needed to genetically enhance this crop for multiple uses. We have developed a pedigreed mutant library in BTx623, the reference inbred line for generating the sorghum genome sequence. The library consists of 6,400 M4 seed pools, each of which was derived from an independently EMS-mutated M1 seed through single seed descent. The mutant library displays a wide range of visible phenotypes; and many are beneficial traits that have potential to be used as breeding materials to improve grain yield and quality. A minicore of 256 selected lines was subjected to whole genome sequencing on Illiminia HiSeq2000. About 2.1 million canonical EMS-induced G/C to A/T SNPs were discovered. Over 92% of the genes in the sorghum genome have either nonsynonymous mutation in the exonic or regulatory regions. This pedigreed mutant library will serve as a unique resource for selection of superior agronomic and nutritional traits and identifying their causal mutations for sorghum improvement and for elucidating gene function through isolation of mutant series for genes of interest by reverse genetic techniques.