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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (12): 1159-1169.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.21-298

• Research Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Genome-wide association study and candidate gene prediction of salt tolerance related traits in maize

Tingyu Shan(), Wen Shi, Yiting Wang, Ziyi Cao, Baohua Wang, Hui Fang()   

  1. Ministry of Agricultural Scientific Observing and Experimental Station of Maize in Plain Area of Southern Region, School of Life Sciences, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China
  • Received:2021-08-13 Revised:2021-10-02 Online:2021-12-20 Published:2021-12-07
  • Contact: Fang Hui E-mail:shan_0822@126.com;fanghui8912@126.com
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the Science and Technology Project of Nantong City, China(MS22020033);Talent Introduction Project of Nantong University No(135420609055)

Abstract:

Salt stress is an important factor that affects maize yield. In order to explore the genetic basis of salt tolerance in maize, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using the mixed liner model was conducted on 150 maize inbred lines with rich genetic background and 34,342 polymorphism SNP markers. A total of 8 independent loci were identified that significantly associated with salt-tolerance traits, among which 3 loci were significantly associated with withering degree on chromosomes 4 and 9; and the remaining 5 loci were significantly associated with plant height change rate on chromosomes 1, 2, 3 and 6. Eleven candidate genes were identified according to the gene expression data under salt stress; and functional annotations verified 7 of them to be significantly up-regulated under salt stress by qRT-PCR. These findings lay a foundation for understanding the mechanism(s) of maize salt tolerance and provide new target genes for the breeding of maize salt tolerance germplasm.

Key words: maize, salt tolerance, mixed liner model, genome-wide association study