Frontiers in Plant Science (Sep 2014)

Species- and genome-wide dissection of the shoot ionome in Brassica napus and its relationship to seedling development

  • Anja eBus,
  • Anja eBus,
  • Niklas eKoerber,
  • Niklas eKoerber,
  • Isobel A P Parkin,
  • Birgit eSamans,
  • Rod John Snowdon,
  • Jinquan eLi,
  • Benjamin eStich

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2014.00485
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5

Abstract

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Knowing the genetic basis of the plant ionome is essential for understandingthe control of nutrient transport and accumulation. The aim of this research wasto (i) study mineral nutrient concentrations in a large and diverse set of Brassicanapus, (ii) describe the relationships between the shoot ionome and seedling development,and (iii) identify genetic regions associated with variation of the shootionome. The plant material under study was a germplasm set consisting of 509 inbredlines that was genotyped by a 6K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrayand phenotyped by analyzing the concentrations of eleven mineral nutrients in theshoot of 30 days old seedlings. Among mineral concentrations, positive correlationswere found, whereas mineral concentrations were mainly negatively correlated withseedling development traits from earlier studies. In a genome-wide association mappingapproach, altogether 29 significantly associated loci were identified across seventraits after correcting for multiple testing. The associations included a locus witheffects on the concentrations of Cu, Mn, and Zn on chromosome C3, and a genetic region with multipleassociations for Na concentration on chromosome A9. This region was situated within an association hotspot close to SOS1, a key gene for Na tolerance in plants.

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