Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Marker–Trait Associations for Heat-Stress Tolerance in Sweet Corn

Sweet corn (<i>Zea mays var. rugosa Bonaf</i>.) is a crop with a high economic benefit in tropical and subtropical regions. Heat tolerance analysis and heat-tolerant gene mining are of great significance for breeding heat-resistant varieties. By combining improved genotyping using target...

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Main Authors: Quannv Yang, Zifeng Guo, Jianan Zhang, Yunbo Wang, Yunbi Xu, Hai Nian
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-09-01
Series:Agronomy
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/14/9/2171
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author Quannv Yang
Zifeng Guo
Jianan Zhang
Yunbo Wang
Yunbi Xu
Hai Nian
author_facet Quannv Yang
Zifeng Guo
Jianan Zhang
Yunbo Wang
Yunbi Xu
Hai Nian
author_sort Quannv Yang
collection DOAJ
description Sweet corn (<i>Zea mays var. rugosa Bonaf</i>.) is a crop with a high economic benefit in tropical and subtropical regions. Heat tolerance analysis and heat-tolerant gene mining are of great significance for breeding heat-resistant varieties. By combining improved genotyping using targeted sequencing (GBTS) with liquid chip (LC) technology, a high-density marker array containing 40 K multiple single polynucleotide polymorphisms (mSNPs) was used to genotype 376 sweet corn inbred lines and their heat-stress tolerance was evaluated in the spring and summer of 2019. In general, plant height, ear height and the number of lateral branches at the first level of the male flowers were reduced by 24.0%, 36.3%, and 19.8%, respectively. High temperatures in the summer accelerated the growth process of the sweet corn, shortening the days to shedding pollen by an average of 21.6% compared to the spring. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified 85 significant SNPs distributed on 10 chromosomes. Phenotypes in the spring and summer were associated with the 21 and 15 loci, respectively, and significant phenotypic differences between the two seasons caused by the temperature change were associated with the 49 SNP loci. The seed setting rate (SSR) was more susceptible to heat stress. An annotation analysis identified six candidate genes, which are either heat shock transcription factors (Hsfs) or heat shock proteins (Hsps) in <i>Arabidopsis</i> and rice (<i>Oryza sativa</i>), and these candidate genes were directly and indirectly involved in the heat-resistant response in the sweet corn. The current findings provide genetic resources for improving the heat-stress tolerance of sweet corn by molecular breeding.
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spelling doaj-art-178e33b99df844acab2ae8b813ec0ff02025-08-20T01:56:09ZengMDPI AGAgronomy2073-43952024-09-01149217110.3390/agronomy14092171Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Marker–Trait Associations for Heat-Stress Tolerance in Sweet CornQuannv Yang0Zifeng Guo1Jianan Zhang2Yunbo Wang3Yunbi Xu4Hai Nian5The Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Breeding of Guangdong Province, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, ChinaInstitute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, ChinaMolBreeding Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Shijiazhuang 050035, ChinaSchool of Food Science and Engineering, Foshan University/CIMMYT-China Tropical Maize Research Center, Guangdong 528225, ChinaInstitute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, ChinaThe Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Breeding of Guangdong Province, College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, ChinaSweet corn (<i>Zea mays var. rugosa Bonaf</i>.) is a crop with a high economic benefit in tropical and subtropical regions. Heat tolerance analysis and heat-tolerant gene mining are of great significance for breeding heat-resistant varieties. By combining improved genotyping using targeted sequencing (GBTS) with liquid chip (LC) technology, a high-density marker array containing 40 K multiple single polynucleotide polymorphisms (mSNPs) was used to genotype 376 sweet corn inbred lines and their heat-stress tolerance was evaluated in the spring and summer of 2019. In general, plant height, ear height and the number of lateral branches at the first level of the male flowers were reduced by 24.0%, 36.3%, and 19.8%, respectively. High temperatures in the summer accelerated the growth process of the sweet corn, shortening the days to shedding pollen by an average of 21.6% compared to the spring. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified 85 significant SNPs distributed on 10 chromosomes. Phenotypes in the spring and summer were associated with the 21 and 15 loci, respectively, and significant phenotypic differences between the two seasons caused by the temperature change were associated with the 49 SNP loci. The seed setting rate (SSR) was more susceptible to heat stress. An annotation analysis identified six candidate genes, which are either heat shock transcription factors (Hsfs) or heat shock proteins (Hsps) in <i>Arabidopsis</i> and rice (<i>Oryza sativa</i>), and these candidate genes were directly and indirectly involved in the heat-resistant response in the sweet corn. The current findings provide genetic resources for improving the heat-stress tolerance of sweet corn by molecular breeding.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/14/9/2171heat resistanceGWASassociated SNPscandidate geneshsp
spellingShingle Quannv Yang
Zifeng Guo
Jianan Zhang
Yunbo Wang
Yunbi Xu
Hai Nian
Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Marker–Trait Associations for Heat-Stress Tolerance in Sweet Corn
Agronomy
heat resistance
GWAS
associated SNPs
candidate genes
hsp
title Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Marker–Trait Associations for Heat-Stress Tolerance in Sweet Corn
title_full Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Marker–Trait Associations for Heat-Stress Tolerance in Sweet Corn
title_fullStr Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Marker–Trait Associations for Heat-Stress Tolerance in Sweet Corn
title_full_unstemmed Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Marker–Trait Associations for Heat-Stress Tolerance in Sweet Corn
title_short Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Marker–Trait Associations for Heat-Stress Tolerance in Sweet Corn
title_sort genome wide association study reveals marker trait associations for heat stress tolerance in sweet corn
topic heat resistance
GWAS
associated SNPs
candidate genes
hsp
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/14/9/2171
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