QTL analysis of low-temperature tolerance in maize germination by SLAF-seq and BSA technique

Background

Cold damage of maize during germination is a global problem; it occurs frequently in northeast China, and leads to a large-scale reduction in yield. Low temperature tolerance of maize in germination is a complex quantitative trait controlled by multigenes, and no major QTLs or key genes have been identified.

Results

An F₂ isolation population with S319 and R144 as parents was constructed. The bulked segregant analysis (BSA) and specific-locus amplified fragment-sequencing (SLAF-seq) methods were applied to locate the chromosomal association regions related to low-temperature tolerance of maize during germination. Sequencing obtained 221.72 Gbp clean data, with an average sequencing depth of 25.96X. Four candidate regions associated with low-temperature tolerance trait of maize in germination were obtained, with a total length of 25.71 Mb and 1513 annotated genes, including 456 nonsynonymous mutant genes and 111 frameshift mutant genes.

Conclusions

This study aimed to lay the foundation for the mining of candidate genes of low-temperature tolerance in maize during germination, and accelerate the process of targeted improvement of maize low-temperature tolerance molecular marker-assisted breeding.

How to cite: Yu T, Zhang J, Cao J, et al. QTL analysis of low temperature tolerance in maize germination by SLAF-seq and BSA technique. Electron J Biotechnol 2024;70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbt.2024.04.003.