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Cell Wall Diversity in Forage Maize: Genetic Complexity and Bioenergy Potential

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Abstract

Genetic studies are ideal platforms for assessing the extent of genetic diversity, inferring the genetic architecture, and evaluating complex trait interrelations for cell wall compositional and bioconversion traits relevant to bioenergy applications. Through the characterization of a forage maize doubled haploid (DH) population, we indicate the substantial degree of highly heritable (h 2 > ~65 %) diversity in cell wall composition and bioconversion potential available within this important agronomic species. In addition to variation in lignin content, extensive genotypic diversity was found for the concentration and composition of hemicelluloses, the latter found to exert an influence on the recalcitrance of maize cell walls. Our results also demonstrate that forage maize harbors considerable variation for the release of cell wall glucose following pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification. In fact, the extent of variability observed for bioconversion efficiency (nearly 30 % between population extremes) greatly exceeded ranges reported in previous studies. In our population, a total of 52 quantitative trait loci (QTL) were detected for biomass compositional and bioconversion characters across 8 chromosomes. Noteworthy, from eight QTL related to bioconversion properties, five were previously unidentified and warrant further investigation. Ultimately, our results substantiate forage maize germplasm as a valid genetic resource for advancing cell wall degradability traits in bioenergy maize-breeding programs. However, since useful variation for cell wall traits is defined by QTL with “minor” effects (R 2 = ~10 %), cultivar development for bio-based applications will rely on advanced marker-assisted selection procedures centered on detecting and increasing the frequency of favorable QTL alleles in elite flint and dent germplasm.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Genencor International B.V. for kindly supplying us with their cellulolytic enzyme cocktails used in this study. Within the framework of the Carbohydrate Competence Centre, this research has been financially supported by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Northern Netherlands Provinces (Samenwerkingsverband Noord-Nederland), KOERS NOORD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wageningen UR Plant Breeding, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 386, 6700 AJ, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Andres F. Torres, Oene Dolstra, Tim van der Weijde, Richard G. F. Visser & Luisa M. Trindade

  2. Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Andres F. Torres & Tim van der Weijde

  3. Limagrain Nederland B.V., Rilland, The Netherlands

    Cornelie M. M. Noordam-Boot & Louis Vlaswinkel

  4. Limagrain France S.A., Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Eliette Combes & Philippe Dufour

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  1. Andres F. Torres
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  8. Richard G. F. Visser
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Correspondence to Luisa M. Trindade.

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Fig. S1

Survey of QTLs identified for biomass compositional and bioconversion characters in a forage maize DH population. Colored bars indicate total number of QTLs identified per trait. Circular points refer to the cumulative explained variance of all identified QTLs for a given trait, as a proportion of observed heritable variation (h 2) (PPTX 54 kb)

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Torres, A.F., Noordam-Boot, C.M.M., Dolstra, O. et al. Cell Wall Diversity in Forage Maize: Genetic Complexity and Bioenergy Potential. Bioenerg. Res. 8, 187–202 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-014-9507-8

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