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Genetic basis of kernel nutritional traits during maize domestication and improvement
Author(s) -
Fang Hui,
Fu Xiuyi,
Wang Yuebin,
Xu Jing,
Feng Haiying,
Li Weiya,
Xu Jieting,
Jittham Orawan,
Zhang Xuan,
Zhang Lili,
Yang Ning,
Xu Gen,
Wang Min,
Li Xiaowei,
Li Jiansheng,
Yan Jianbing,
Yang Xiaohong
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the plant journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.058
H-Index - 269
eISSN - 1365-313X
pISSN - 0960-7412
DOI - 10.1111/tpj.14539
Subject(s) - biology , domestication , quantitative trait locus , germplasm , epistasis , selection (genetic algorithm) , genetics , allele , trait , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , agronomy , artificial intelligence , computer science , programming language
Summary The nutritional traits of maize kernels are important for human and animal nutrition, and these traits have undergone selection to meet the diverse nutritional needs of humans. However, our knowledge of the genetic basis of selecting for kernel nutritional traits is limited. Here, we identified both single and epistatic quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that contributed to the differences of oil and carotenoid traits between maize and teosinte. Over half of teosinte alleles of single QTLs increased the values of the detected oil and carotenoid traits. Based on the pleiotropism or linkage information of the identified single QTLs, we constructed a trait–locus network to help clarify the genetic basis of correlations among oil and carotenoid traits. Furthermore, the selection features and evolutionary trajectories of the genes or loci underlying variations in oil and carotenoid traits revealed that these nutritional traits produced diverse selection events during maize domestication and improvement. To illustrate more, a mutator distance–relative transposable element (TE) in intron 1 of DXS2 , which encoded a rate‐limiting enzyme in the methylerythritol phosphate pathway, was identified to increase carotenoid biosynthesis by enhancing DXS2 expression. This TE occurs in the grass teosinte, and has been found to have undergone selection during maize domestication and improvement, and is almost fixed in yellow maize. Our findings not only provide important insights into evolutionary changes in nutritional traits, but also highlight the feasibility of reintroducing back into commercial agricultural germplasm those nutritionally important genes hidden in wild relatives.