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A worldwide maize panel revealed new genetic variation for cold tolerance

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Abstract

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A large association panel of 836 maize inbreds revealed a broader genetic diversity of cold tolerance, as predominantly favorable QTL with small effects were identified, indicating that genomic selection is the most promising option for breeding maize for cold tolerance.

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.) has limited cold tolerance, and breeding for cold tolerance is a noteworthy bottleneck for reaching the high potential of maize production in temperate areas. In this study, we evaluate a large panel of 836 maize inbred lines to detect genetic loci and candidate genes for cold tolerance at the germination and seedling stages. Genetic variation for cold tolerance was larger than in previous reports with moderately high heritability for most traits. We identified 187 significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were integrated into 159 quantitative trait loci (QTL) for emergence and traits related to early growth. Most of the QTL have small effects and are specific for each environment, with the majority found under control conditions. Favorable alleles are more frequent in 120 inbreds including all germplasm groups, but mainly from Minnesota and Spain. Therefore, there is a large, potentially novel, genetic variability in the germplasm groups represented by these inbred lines. Most of the candidate genes are involved in metabolic processes and intracellular membrane-bounded organelles. We expect that further evaluations of germplasm with broader genetic diversity could identify additional favorable alleles for cold tolerance. However, it is not likely that further studies will find favorable alleles with large effects for improving cold tolerance in maize.

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Abbreviations

BLUE:

Best linear unbiased estimators

Fv/Fm :

Quantum efficiency of photosystem II

GWAS:

Genome-wide association analyses

QTL:

Quantitative trait loci

SNP:

Single-nucleotide polymorphism

SPAD:

Soil–Plant Analyses Development is the relative amount of chlorophyll estimated by measuring the absorbance of the leaf in two wavelength regions

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Acknowledgments

Seed from inbred lines of the panel was provided by the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station of the USA.

Funding

This work was financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), and the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER), UE (project code AGL2016-77628-R, PID2019-108127RB-I00). The stage of Yi Qiang in Spain was paid by the China Scholarship Council (C.S.C.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Misión Biológica de Galicia (CSIC), Apartado 28, E-36080, Pontevedra, Spain

    Q. Yi, L. Álvarez-Iglesias, R. A. Malvar & Pedro Revilla

  2. College of Agriculture, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Q. Yi

  3. Institute for Genomic Diversity, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY14853, USA

    M. C. Romay

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  1. Q. Yi
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  2. L. Álvarez-Iglesias
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  3. R. A. Malvar
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  4. M. C. Romay
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  5. Pedro Revilla
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Correspondence to Pedro Revilla.

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Communicated by Jianbing Yan.

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Yi, Q., Álvarez-Iglesias, L., Malvar, R.A. et al. A worldwide maize panel revealed new genetic variation for cold tolerance. Theor Appl Genet 134, 1083–1094 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-020-03753-3

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