Yield-height correlation and QTL localization for plant height in two lowland switchgrass populations

Abstract

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), as a model herbaceous crop species for bioenergy production, is targeted to improve biomass yield and feedstock quality. Plant height is a major component contributing to biomass yield. Accordingly, the objectives of this research were to analyze phenotypic variation for biomass and plant height and the association between them and to localize associated plant height QTLs. Two lowland switchgrass mapping populations, one selfed and another hybrid population established in the field at Perkins and Stillwater, Oklahoma, were deployed in the experiment for two years post establishment. Large genetic variation existed for plant biomass and height within the two populations. Plant height was positively correlated with biomass yield in the selfed population (r = 0.39, P<0.0001) and the hybrid population (r = 0.41, P<0.0001). In the selfed population, a joint analysis across all environments revealed 10 QTLs and separate analysis for each environment, collectively revealed 39 QTLs related to plant height. In the hybrid population, the joint analysis across overall environments revealed 35 QTLs and the separate analysis for each environment revealed 38 QTLs. The findings of this research contribute new information about the genetic control for plant height and will be useful for future plant breeding and genetic improvement programs in lowland switchgrass.

Keywords

yield-height / QTL localization / lowland switchgrass

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NSF EPSCoR award 0814361, Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, Hatch OKL2972, the South Central Sun Grant Competitive Grants Program. The authors thank Dr. Tilin Fang, Mrs. Pu Feng, Mr. Gary Williams, Mrs. Sharon Williams, Dr. James Todd, Dr. Chengcheng Tan, Ms. Shuiyi Thames, Mr. Laxman Adhikari, and Dr. Yuanwen Guo for their support in this research.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Shiva O. Makaju, Yanqi Q. Wu, Michael P. Anderson, Vijaya G. Kakani, Michael W. Smith, Linglong Liu, Hongxu Dong, and Dan Chang declare they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose.

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2018. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)