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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #358201
Research Project: Improving Crop Efficiency Using Genomic Diversity and Computational Modeling

Location: Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research

Title: Expanding maize genetic resources with predomestication alleles: Maize–teosinte introgression populations

Author
item LIU, ZHENGBIN - University Of Missouri
item COOK, JASON - University Of Missouri
item Melia-Hancock, Susan
item Guill, Katherine
item BOTTOMS, CHRISTOPHER - University Of Missouri
item Garcia, Arturo
item OTT, OLIVER - Cornell University
item NELSON, REBECCCA - Cornell University
item RECKERD, JILL - North Carolina State University
item Balint-Kurti, Peter
item LARSSON, SARA - Cornell University
item Lepak, Nicholas
item Buckler, Edward - Ed
item TRIMBLE, LOREN - University Of Wisconsin
item TRACY, WILLIAMS - University Of Wisconsin
item McMullen, Michael
item Flint-Garcia, Sherry

Submitted to: The Plant Genome
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/16/2015
Publication Date: 3/4/2016
Citation: Liu, Z., Cook, J., Melia-Hancock, S., Guill, K.E., Bottoms, C., Garcia, A., Ott, O., Nelson, R., Reckerd, J., Balint Kurti, P.J., Larsson, S., Lepak, N.K., Buckler IV, E.S., Trimble, L., Tracy, W., McMullen, M.D., Flint Garcia, S.A. 2016. Expanding maize genetic resources with predomestication alleles: Maize–teosinte introgression populations. The Plant Genome. (9):1.

Interpretive Summary: It has been proven that maize was originally domesticated from its wild progenitor teosinte. Maize and teosinte have similar characteristics such as photoperiod sensitivity, ear morphology, and kernel traits. Domestication and subsequent breeding have greatly reduced genetic diversity in modern maize compared to teosinte, which could ultimately limit the yield of maize. This research created a public resource of germplasm with teosinte alleles reintroduced back into maize in order to shed light on the genetic basis of agronomic and domestication traits and to hopefully identify new avenues for improved maize yield potential. The maize-teosinte population was used for genetic mapping for multiple traits. The results of this study show that the maize-teosinte population is very useful for mapping genes as well as for introducing unique alleles into the maize gene pool.

Technical Abstract: Teosinte (Zea mays subsp. parviglumis H. H. Iltis & Doebley) has greater genetic diversity than maize inbreds and landraces (Z. mays subsp. mays). 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.