Mining sorghum pangenome enabled identification of new dw3 alleles for breeding stable-dwarfing hybrids.

Allele mining of crop pangenomes can enable the identification of novel variants for trait improvement, increase crop genetic diversity, and purge deleterious mutations around fixed genomic regions. Sorghum, a C4 cereal crop domesticated in the tropics, was selected for reduced plant height and maturity to develop combine-harvestable and photoperiod-insensitive US grain sorghums. To breed semi-dwarf US grain sorghum hybrids, public and private sector programs mostly used the dw3-ref allele, which produces undesirable height revertants (frequency of 0.

Transcriptome-wide expression landscape and starch synthesis pathway co-expression network in sorghum.

The gene expression landscape across different tissues and developmental stages reflects their biological functions and evolutionary patterns. Integrative and comprehensive analyses of all transcriptomic data in an organism are instrumental to obtaining a comprehensive picture of gene expression landscape. Such studies are still very limited in sorghum, which limits the discovery of the genetic basis underlying complex agricultural traits in sorghum.

Experimental evaluation of genomic selection prediction for rust resistance in sugarcane.

The total sugarcane (Saccharum L.) production has increased worldwide; however, the rate of growth is lower compared with other major crops, mainly due to a plateauing of genetic gain. Genomic selection (GS) has proven to substantially increase the rate of genetic gain in many crops.

Genome-wide mapping and prediction of plant architecture in a sorghum nested association mapping population.

Modifying plant architecture is often necessary for yield improvement and climate adaptation, but we lack understanding of the genotype-phenotype map for plant morphology in sorghum. Here, we use a nested association mapping (NAM) population that captures global allelic diversity of sorghum to characterize the genetics of leaf erectness, leaf width (at two stages), and stem diameter. Recombinant inbred lines (n = 2200) were phenotyped in multiple environments (35,200 observations) and joint linkage mapping was performed with ∼93,000 markers.

Training Population Optimization for Genomic Selection in .

is a perennial grass with potential for lignocellulosic ethanol production. To ensure its utility for this purpose, breeding efforts should focus on increasing genetic diversity of the nothospecies × (M×g) beyond the single clone used in many programs. Germplasm from the corresponding parental species (Msi) and (Msa) could theoretically be used as training sets for genomic prediction of M×g clones with optimal genomic estimated breeding values for biofuel traits.

Dissecting Adaptive Traits with Nested Association Mapping: Genetic Architecture of Inflorescence Morphology in Sorghum.

In the cereal crop sorghum () inflorescence morphology variation underlies yield variation and confers adaptation across precipitation gradients, but its genetic basis is poorly understood. We characterized the genetic architecture of sorghum inflorescence morphology using a global nested association mapping (NAM) population (2200 recombinant inbred lines) and 198,000 phenotypic observations from multi-environment trials for four inflorescence morphology traits (upper branch length, lower branch length, rachis length, and rachis diameter). Trait correlations suggest that lower and upper branch length are under somewhat independent control, while lower branch length and rachis diameter are highly pleiotropic.

Population Structure Analyses Provide Insight into the Source Populations Underlying Rural Isolated Communities in Illinois.

We have previously hypothesized that relatively small and isolated rural communities may experience founder effects, defined as the genetic ramifications of small population sizes at the time of a community's establishment. To explore this, we used an Illumina Infinium Omni2.5Exome-8 chip to collect data from 157 individuals from four Illinois communities, three rural and one urban.

Genetic Architecture of Chilling Tolerance in Sorghum Dissected with a Nested Association Mapping Population.

Dissecting the genetic architecture of stress tolerance in crops is critical to understand and improve adaptation. In temperate climates, early planting of chilling-tolerant varieties could provide longer growing seasons and drought escape, but chilling tolerance (<15°) is generally lacking in tropical-origin crops. Here we developed a nested association mapping (NAM) population to dissect the genetic architecture of early-season chilling tolerance in the tropical-origin cereal sorghum [L.

Epistasis Detection and Modeling for Genomic Selection in Cowpea ( L. Walp.).

Genetic architecture reflects the pattern of effects and interaction of genes underlying phenotypic variation. Most mapping and breeding approaches generally consider the additive part of variation but offer limited knowledge on the benefits of epistasis which explains in part the variation observed in traits. In this study, the cowpea multiparent advanced generation inter-cross (MAGIC) population was used to characterize the epistatic genetic architecture of flowering time, maturity, and seed size.

An Integrated Genotyping-by-Sequencing Polymorphism Map for Over 10,000 Sorghum Genotypes.

Mining crop genomic variation can facilitate the genetic research of complex traits and molecular breeding. In sorghum [ L. (Moench)], several large-scale single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) datasets have been generated using genotyping-by-sequencing of KI reduced representation libraries.

Genomic Signatures of Adaptation to a Precipitation Gradient in Nigerian Sorghum.

Evolution of plants under climatic gradients may lead to clinal adaptation. Understanding the genomic basis of clinal adaptation in crops species could facilitate breeding for climate resilience. We investigated signatures of clinal adaptation in the cereal crop sorghum ( L.