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Genetic analyses of nitrogen assimilation enzymes in Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss

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Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is a critical input for plant growth and development. A better understanding of N uptake and utilization is important to develop plant breeding strategies for improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). With that objective in mind, we assayed a SNP-genotyped association panel comprising 92 inbred lines for the activities of nitrate reductase (NR), nitrite reductase (NIR), glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamate synthase (GOGAT). All these enzymes are associated with N assimilation. The experiments were carried out at two levels of N application: no added N (N0) and agrnomically recommened dose (100 kg/ha) of N application (N100). Genome wide association studies (GWAS) helped to identify several marker-trait associations (MTAs), involving chromosomes A01, A06, A08, B02, B04, B05 and B08. These explained high phenotypic variation (up to 32%). Annotation of the genomic region(s) in or around significant SNPs allowed prediction of genes encoding high affinity nitrate transporters, glutamine synthetase 1.3, myb-like transcription factor family protein, bidirectional amino acid transporter 1, auxin signaling F-box 3 and oxidoreductases. This is the first attempt to use GWAS for identification of enzyme QTLs to explain variation for nitrogen assimilation enzymes in Brassica juncea.

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Acknowledgements

The studies were financially supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India in the form of Centre of Excellence and Innovation in Biotechnology “Germplasm enhancement for crop architecture and defensive traits in Brassica juncea L. Czern. and Coss”. SSB also acknowledges salary support from Indian Council of Agricultural Research under ICAR National Professor Chair.

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  1. Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, 141001, India

    Shilpa Gupta, Javed Akhatar, Palminder Kaur, Anju Sharma, Pushp Sharma, Meenakshi Mittal, Baudh Bharti & Surinder Singh Banga

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  1. Shilpa Gupta
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Gupta, S., Akhatar, J., Kaur, P. et al. Genetic analyses of nitrogen assimilation enzymes in Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss. Mol Biol Rep 46, 4235–4244 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-019-04878-5

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