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QTL mapping for leaf morphology traits in a large maize-teosinte population

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Abstract

From its wild progenitor teosinte (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis), maize has experienced a dramatic morphological transformation. Although several critical genes controlling the changes in overall plant architecture during domestication have been identified, the genetic basis that controls the changes in leaf morphology, an important component of plant architecture, remains poorly understood. Here, using a large population of 866 maize-teosinte BC2S3 recombinant inbred lines genotyped with 19,838 SNP markers, we performed high-resolution quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping for three leaf morphological traits, including leaf length, leaf width, and sheath length. We demonstrate that the three leaf traits were associated with distinct genetic architecture features and under relatively independent genetic control. This genetic independence was further validated by the analysis of near-isogenic lines for target QTLs. QTL characterization revealed that the three leaf traits might have experienced directional selection for increased leaf size since domestication. We found that known leaf development genes identified by mutagenesis were significantly enriched in the support intervals of leaf trait QTLs, potentially indicating their important roles in regulating natural variation in leaf traits. Our findings provide important insights into the genetic basis that controls maize leaf evolution.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0100404), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91535108), the Recruitment Program of Global Experts, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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  1. Yuhua Fu and Guanghui Xu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guizhou Institute of Subtropical Crops, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xingyi, 562400, China

    Yuhua Fu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, National Maize Improvement Center, Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Maize (MOA), Beijing Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Yuhua Fu, Guanghui Xu, Huafeng Chen, Xufeng Wang, Qiuyue Chen, Cheng Huang, Dan Li, Dingyi Xu, Jinge Tian, Weihao Wu, Cong Li & Feng Tian

  3. College of Agronomy, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, China

    Cheng Huang

  4. School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Sijia Lu

  5. College of Biological Science and Technology, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, 110866, China

    Cong Li

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  1. Yuhua Fu
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  2. Guanghui Xu
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Contributions

YF, GX, CL, and FT designed the experiment. YF, GX, and HC analyzed the data. GX, HC, XW, QC, CH, DL, DX, JT, WW, SL, and CL collected phenotypic data and performed molecular analysis. YF, GX, CL, and FT wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Cong Li or Feng Tian.

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Fu, Y., Xu, G., Chen, H. et al. QTL mapping for leaf morphology traits in a large maize-teosinte population. Mol Breeding 39, 103 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-019-1012-5

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