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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Urbana, Illinois » Global Change and Photosynthesis Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #302336
Title: Sites of ozone sensitivity in diverse maize inbred lines

Author
item Ainsworth, Elizabeth - Lisa
item BROWN, P - University Of Illinois
item LEAKEY, A D B - University Of Illinois
item MCINTYRE, L - University Of Florida
item BARRIOS-PEREZ, I - University Of Illinois
item DALSING, B - University Of Illinois
item ERICE, G - University Of Illinois
item LEISNER, C - University Of Illinois
item MONTES, C - University Of Illinois
item MORSE, A - University Of Florida

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/11/2013
Publication Date: 1/13/2014
Citation: Ainsworth, E.A., Brown, P.J., Leakey, A., McIntyre, L.M., Barrios-Perez, I., Dalsing, B., Erice, G., Leisner, C., Montes, C., Morse, A. 2014. Sites of ozone sensitivity in diverse maize inbred lines [abstract]. Plant and Animal Genome Conference. Paper No. P171.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Tropospheric ozone (O3) is an air pollutant that costs ~$14-26 billion in global crop losses and is projected to worsen in the future. Potential sites of O3 sensitivity in maize were tested by growing 200 inbred lines, including the nested association mapping population founder lines, under ambient (~40 ppb) and elevated O3 concentrations (100 ppb) at the Free Air Concentration Enrichment (FACE) site in Champaign, IL. Ozone treated plants showed decreases in green leaf number and leaf chlorophyll and increases in leaf senescence compared to control plants, and these differences became progressively greater through the growing season. On average, O3 accelerated the time to anthesis and silking by ~1 day, but did not affect the anthesis to silking interval. Elevated O3 impaired spikelet formation in a subset of genotypes. Photosynthetic measurements of the reference line B73 revealed that daily C gain was reduced by >20% late in the season, showing that C4 photosynthesis is sensitive to O3. Elevated O3 reduced incidence of common rust on leaves at flowering, but increased incidence of stalk rot at harvest in some lines. Analysis of leaf and silk biochemistry, leaf reflectance, stomatal patterning and yield is ongoing. There appear to be many sites of O3 sensitivity in C4 maize, and significant genetic variation in O3 responses in all phenotypic traits examined. Future work will investigate O3 tolerance in both inbred and hybrid maize lines, identify phenotypic traits with the strongest correlations to yield loss, and identify O3 tolerant and sensitive maize germplasm.