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ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Plant Science Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #75508
Title: MOLECULAR GENETIC MAPPING OF DWARFING GENES IN OAT

Author
item MILACH, SANDRA - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
item Rines, Howard
item PHILLIPS, RONALD - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Submitted to: Journal of Theoretical and Applied Genetics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/29/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: In crop production, major losses in grain quality and yield often occur from plants breaking or falling over in wind and rain storms. The development of shorter, more compact plant types helps plants resist this breaking or lodging. In the cereal crop oat, geneticists are searching for genes that will reduce plant height but have no negative effects on yield. We have identified DNA segments that are associated with genes that give reduced plant height in oat. These associated DNA segments serve as markers or tags for these genes. Because we are able to determine how these DNA segments are organized in the genetic material of oat, we can determine the organizational relationship among the different genes for reduced oat plant height. This improved understanding of the genetic relationship among various "dwarfing" genes will help geneticists and breeders to design oat varieties with the desired shorter plant type. Resulting shorter height oat varieties should stand better in the field and retain high quality, non-weathered grain that is easier for farmers to mechanically harvest.

Technical Abstract: Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) analysis provides a valuable tool for characterizing and understanding relationships among genes for useful traits in crop species, particularly in ones with complex genomes such as the hexaploid cultivated oat Avena sativa L. (2n = 6x = 42). Using Bulked Segregant Analysis (BSA) and F2 RFLP linkage data, we mapped three dominant or semidominant oat dwarfing loci to different regions of the oat genome. The Dw6 gene, in oat line OT207, is 3.3 +/ 1.3 cM from the Xumn145B locus. The Dw7 gene, in line NC2469-3, is 4.3 +/ 2.3 cM from Xcdo1437B and 33 +/ 4.1 cM from Xcdo708B. The Dw8 gene, in the Japanese lines AV17/3/10 and AV18/2/4, mapped 4.9 +/ 2.2 cM from the Xcdo1319A locus in an AV17/3/10 x Kanota F2 population and 6.6 +/ 2.6 cM in an AV18/2/4/ x Kanota population. RFLP analyses located the Dw7 gene in linkage group 22 and the Dw8 in linkage group 3 of the hexaploid oat RFLP map. Aneuploid analysis of markers linked to the dwarfing genes located the Dw6 gene on the smallest oat chromosome (chromosome 18) and the Dw7 gene on the longest satellited chromosome (chromosome 19). The RFLP markers closely linked to the three dwarfing genes identify distinct regions of the oat genome which contribute to plant height and will be useful in characterizing new genetic sources of dwarfness in oat.