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Wolf ESA, Vela S, Wilker J, Davis A, Robert M, Infante V, Venado RE, Voiniciuc C, Ané JM, Vermerris W. Identification of genetic and environmental factors influencing aerial root traits that support biological nitrogen fixation in sorghum. G3 (Bethesda) 2024; 14:jkad285. [PMID: 38096484 PMCID: PMC10917507 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkad285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 11/19/2023] [Indexed: 03/08/2024]
Abstract
Plant breeding and genetics play a major role in the adaptation of plants to meet human needs. The current requirement to make agriculture more sustainable can be partly met by a greater reliance on biological nitrogen fixation by symbiotic diazotrophic microorganisms that provide crop plants with ammonium. Select accessions of the cereal crop sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) form mucilage-producing aerial roots that harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Breeding programs aimed at developing sorghum varieties that support diazotrophs will benefit from a detailed understanding of the genetic and environmental factors contributing to aerial root formation. A genome-wide association study of the sorghum minicore, a collection of 242 landraces, and 30 accessions from the sorghum association panel was conducted in Florida and Wisconsin and under 2 fertilizer treatments to identify loci associated with the number of nodes with aerial roots and aerial root diameter. Sequence variation in genes encoding transcription factors that control phytohormone signaling and root system architecture showed significant associations with these traits. In addition, the location had a significant effect on the phenotypes. Concurrently, we developed F2 populations from crosses between bioenergy sorghums and a landrace that produced extensive aerial roots to evaluate the mode of inheritance of the loci identified by the genome-wide association study. Furthermore, the mucilage collected from aerial roots contained polysaccharides rich in galactose, arabinose, and fucose, whose composition displayed minimal variation among 10 genotypes and 2 fertilizer treatments. These combined results support the development of sorghums with the ability to acquire nitrogen via biological nitrogen fixation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily S A Wolf
- Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32609, USA
| | - Saddie Vela
- Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32609, USA
| | - Jennifer Wilker
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Alyssa Davis
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
| | - Madalen Robert
- Independent Junior Research Group–Designer Glycans, Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany
- Department of Horticultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32609, USA
| | - Valentina Infante
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Rafael E Venado
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Cătălin Voiniciuc
- Department of Horticultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32609, USA
| | - Jean-Michel Ané
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Department of Agronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Wilfred Vermerris
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
- University of Florida Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
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