Abstract
Stem growth and wood density associated with a mutant null (cad-n1) allele were examined in three 15-year-old loblolly pine half-diallel tests established on two sites in the southern United States. In each half-diallel test, one or two cad-n1 heterozygous parents were crossed with five unrelated wild-type parents to produce five or ten full-sib families. In all, 839 trees from 20 full-sib families in four genetic backgrounds (a cad-n1 heterozygote × five unrelated trees) were sampled, genotyped at the cad locus, and assessed for growth and wood density traits. In a combined analysis of all four genetic backgrounds, we found evidence for effects of increased wood density associated with the cad-n1 allele at age 15 years (p=0.03) and height growth at ages 6 (p=0.03) and 15 (p=0.005). There were differences in the cad-n1 effects for the various growth and wood traits among the half-diallel tests. This variation may be due to either different genetic backgrounds among the parents of the different half-diallel tests or for different growing environments at the field sites. Even though the cad-n1 effect on growth and wood density was significant across genetic backgrounds, the effect was variable among full-sib families within backgrounds. We speculate that certain wild-type alleles from second parents specifically interact with cad-n1 producing large positive effects. In addition, pleiotropic effects on growth and wood density appear to be associated with the cad-n1 allele. While substantial gains are possible through deployment of trees carrying cad-n1, these gains may be family-specific and should be verified for each cross through field-testing.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the US Department of Energy (DOE), Agenda 2020 Program award DE-FC36-03ID14436. We thank Dr. Ronald Sederoff and Dr. Ross Whetten for valuable discussions and suggestions and Dr. Marcia Gumpertz for the stimulating discussion regarding the statistical issues involved in the paper. Thanks also to Ms. Sedley Josserand from the Southern Institute of Forest Genetics (USDA-Forest Service, Southern Research Station) for the excellent technical support.
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Yu, Q., Li, B., Nelson, C.D. et al. Association of the cad-n1 allele with increased stem growth and wood density in full-sib families of loblolly pine. Tree Genetics & Genomes 2, 98–108 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-005-0032-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-005-0032-y