Abstract
Key message
Leaf senescence in sorghum is primarily controlled by the progression, but not by the onset of senescence. The senescence-delaying haplotypes of 45 key genes accentuated from landraces to improved lines.
Abstract
Leaf senescence is a genetically programmed developmental process and plays a central role for plant survival and crop production by remobilising nutrients accumulated in senescent leaves. In theory, the ultimate outcome of leaf senescence is determined by the onset and progression of senescence, but how these two processes contribute to senescence is not fully illustrated in crops and the genetic basis for them is not well understood. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), which is known for the remarkable stay-green trait, is ideal for dissecting the genomic architecture underlying the regulation of senescence. In this study, a diverse panel of 333 sorghum lines was explored for the onset and progression of leaf senescence. Trait correlation analysis showed that the progression of leaf senescence, rather than the onset of leaf senescence, significantly correlated with variations of the final leaf greenness. This notion was further supported by GWAS, which identified 31 senescence-associated genomic regions containing 148 genes, of which 124 were related to the progression of leaf senescence. The senescence-delaying haplotypes of 45 key candidate genes were enriched in lines with extremely prolonged senescence duration, while senescence-promoting haplotypes in those with extremely accelerated senescence. Haplotype combinations of these genes could well explain the segregation of the senescence trait in a recombinant inbred population. We also demonstrated that senescence-delaying haplotypes of candidate genes were under strong selection during sorghum domestication and genetic improvement. Together, this research advanced our understanding of crop leaf senescence and provided a suite of candidate genes for functional genomics and molecular breeding.
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Data availability
The datasets analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all members of Hai-Chun Jing’s lab for their assistance in this research. This work was supported by grants from Shandong Province Key Research and Development Program (2021SFGC0303), National Key Research and Development Plan of China (2019YFD1002701 and 2018YFD1000701), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA26050101) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32072026).
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This work was supported by grants from Shandong Province Key Research and Development Program (2021SFGC0303), the National Key Research and Development Plan of China (2019YFD1002701 and 2018YFD1000701), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA26050101) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32072026).
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HCJ and HQH conceived and designed the experiments; LDW and LS performed the experiments; XYW provided support for bioinformatics analysis; LDW analysed the data and wrote the paper; HCJ and HQH revised the manuscript.
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Wang, L., Shang, L., Wu, X. et al. Genomic architecture of leaf senescence in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). Theor Appl Genet 136, 45 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-023-04315-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-023-04315-z