Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #355979
Research Project: Development of Economically Important Row Crops that Improve the Resilience of U.S. Agricultural Production to Present and Future Production Challenges

Location: Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Research

Title: Development of a pedigreed sorghum mutant library

Author
item Chen, Junping
item ZOU, GUIHUA - Zhejiang Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item Xin, Zhanguo

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/5/2018
Publication Date: 1/15/2019
Citation: Chen, J., Zou, G., Xin, Z. 2019. Development of a pedigreed sorghum mutant library. In: Walker, J.M. Methods in Molecular Biology. Humana Press, Clifford, New Jersey. 1931:61-73. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9039-9_5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9039-9_5

Interpretive Summary: Identification of genetic factors contributing to important agronomic traits of crop species remains a great challenge despite of years of studies. Gene discovery from mutant library, coupled with genome editing, is a powerful approach to uncover the gene-trait association and accelerate breeding for target traits in crops. Establishing a high quality mutant library is essential to efficiently identify causal genes for important agronomic traits. This book chapter described a procedure on how to develop a high quality pedigreed mutant library in sorghum. The protocol can be used directly in the development of mutant libraries in sorghum and serve as a general guideline in mutant library construction in other crop and plant species.

Technical Abstract: Induced mutagenesis is a powerful approach to generate variations for elucidation of gene function and create new traits for breeding. Here we described a procedure to develop a pedigreed mutant library through chemical mutagenesis with ethylmethane sulfonate (EMS) treated seeds in sorghum and discussed its potential to generate new traits for sorghum improvement. Unlike random mutagenesis, a pedigreed mutant library, once properly established, can serve as a powerful resource to isolate and recover mutations of both agronomical and biological importance. With the development of affordable and high throughput next-generation sequencing technologies, identification of causal mutations from a mutant library with a uniform genetic background becomes increasing efficient and cost-effective. Fast causal gene discovery from mutant libraries combined with efficient genome editing techniques will accelerate incorporation of new traits and revolutionize crop breeding.