A systems biology, whole-genome association analysis of the molecular regulation of biomass growth and composition in Populus deltoides
- Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
Poplars trees are well suited for biofuel production due to their fast growing habit, favorable wood composition and adaptation to a broad range of environments. The availability of a reference genome sequence, ease of vegetative propagation and availability of transformation methods also make poplar an ideal model for the study of wood formation and biomass growth in woody, perennial plants. The objective of this project was to conduct a genome-wide association genetics study to identify genes that regulate bioenergy traits in Populus deltoides (eastern cottonwood). Populus deltoides is a genetically diverse keystone forest species in North America and an important short rotation woody crop for the bioenergy industry. We searched for associations between eight growth and wood composition traits and common and low-frequency single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) detected by targeted resequencing of 18,153 genes in a population of 391 unrelated individuals. To increase power to detect associations with low-frequency variants, multiple-marker association tests were used in combination with single-marker association tests. Significant associations were discovered for all phenotypes and are indicative that low-frequency polymorphisms contribute to phenotypic variance of several bioenergy traits. These polymorphism are critical tools for the development of specialized plant feedstocks for bioenergy.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0003893
- OSTI ID:
- 1322865
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UFL-SC0003893-YR5
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: Sequencing reads are available in the National Center for Biotechnology Information Short Read Archive (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov; Accession number: SRP066162).
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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