The Plant Genome (Mar 2016)

Expanding Maize Genetic Resources with Predomestication Alleles: Maize–Teosinte Introgression Populations

  • Zhengbin Liu,
  • Jason Cook,
  • Susan Melia-Hancock,
  • Katherine Guill,
  • Christopher Bottoms,
  • Arturo Garcia,
  • Oliver Ott,
  • Rebecca Nelson,
  • Jill Recker,
  • Peter Balint-Kurti,
  • Sara Larsson,
  • Nicholas Lepak,
  • Ed Buckler,
  • Loren Trimble,
  • William Tracy,
  • Michael D. McMullen,
  • Sherry A. Flint-Garcia

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3835/plantgenome2015.07.0053
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1

Abstract

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Teosinte ( subsp. H. H. Iltis & Doebley) has greater genetic diversity than maize inbreds and landraces ( subsp. ). There are, however, limited genetic resources to efficiently evaluate and tap this diversity. To broaden resources for genetic diversity studies in maize, we developed and evaluated 928 near-isogenic introgression lines (NILs) from 10 teosinte accessions in the B73 background. Joint linkage analysis of the 10 introgression populations identified several large-effect quantitative trait loci (QTL) for days to anthesis (DTA), kernel row number (KRN), and 50-kernel weight (Wt50k). Our results confirm prior reports of kernel domestication loci and identify previously uncharacterized QTL with a range of allelic effects enabling future research into the genetic basis of these traits. Additionally, we used a targeted set of NILs to validate the effects of a KRN QTL located on chromosome 2. These introgression populations offer novel tools for QTL discovery and validation as well as a platform for initiating fine mapping.