Genome-Wide Association Studies of Image Traits Reveal Genetic Architecture of Drought Resistance in Rice
Understanding how plants respond to drought can benefit drought resistance (DR) breeding. Using a non-destructive phenotyping facility, 51 image-based traits (i-traits) for 507 rice accessions were extracted. These i-traits can be used to monitor drought responses and evaluate DR. High heritability...
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Published in | Molecular plant Vol. 11; no. 6; pp. 789 - 805 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
Elsevier Inc
04.06.2018
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Understanding how plants respond to drought can benefit drought resistance (DR) breeding. Using a non-destructive phenotyping facility, 51 image-based traits (i-traits) for 507 rice accessions were extracted. These i-traits can be used to monitor drought responses and evaluate DR. High heritability and large variation of these traits was observed under drought stress in the natural population. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of i-traits and traditional DR traits identified 470 association loci, some containing known DR-related genes. Of these 470 loci, 443 loci (94%) were identified using i-traits, 437 loci (93%) co-localized with previously reported DR-related quantitative trait loci, and 313 loci (66.6%) were reproducibly identified by GWAS in different years. Association networks, established based on GWAS results, revealed hub i-traits and hub loci. This demonstrates the feasibility and necessity of dissecting the complex DR trait into heritable and simple i-traits. As proof of principle, we illustrated the power of this integrated approach to identify previously unreported DR-related genes. OsPP15 was associated with a hub i-trait, and its role in DR was confirmed by genetic transformation experiments. Furthermore, i-traits can be used for DR linkage analyses, and 69 i-trait locus associations were identified by both GWAS and linkage analysis of a recombinant inbred line population. Finally, we confirmed the relevance of i-traits to DR in the field. Our study provides a promising novel approach for the genetic dissection and discovery of causal genes for DR.
A set of highly heritable image traits was identified to monitor dynamic drought responses and to evaluate drought resistance (DR) in rice. GWAS of the image-based and traditional traits revealed a comprehensive genetic architecture of DR in rice. Several image traits are closely correlated to DR in the field and have high potential to be indicative traits in DR breeding. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1674-2052 1752-9867 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.molp.2018.03.018 |