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Five QTL hotspots for yield in short rotation coppice bioenergy poplar: the poplar biomass loci

Five QTL hotspots for yield in short rotation coppice bioenergy poplar: the poplar biomass loci
Five QTL hotspots for yield in short rotation coppice bioenergy poplar: the poplar biomass loci
Background: Concern over land use for non-food bioenergy crops requires breeding programmes that focus on producing biomass on the minimum amount of land that is economically-viable. To achieve this, the maximum potential yield per hectare is a key target for improvement. For long lived tree species, such as poplar, this requires an understanding of the traits that contribute to biomass production and their genetic control. An important aspect of this for long lived plants is an understanding of genetic interactions at different developmental stages, i.e. how genes or genetic regions impact on yield over time.

Results: QTL mapping identified regions of genetic control for biomass yield. We mapped consistent QTL across multiple coppice cycles and identified five robust QTL hotspots on linkage groups III, IV, X, XIV and XIX, calling these 'Poplar Biomass Loci' (PBL 1–5). In total 20% of the variation in final harvest biomass yield was explained by mapped QTL. We also investigated the genetic correlations between yield related traits to identify 'early diagnostic' indicators of yield showing that early biomass was a reasonable predictor of coppice yield and that leaf size, cell number and stem and sylleptic branch number were also valuable traits.

Conclusion: These findings provide insight into the genetic control of biomass production and correlation to 'early diagnostic' traits determining yield in poplar SRC for bioenergy. QTL hotspots serve as useful targets for directed breeding for improved biomass productivity that may also be relevant across additional poplar hybrids.
1471-2229
1-13
Rae, Anne M.
59c24658-bfd8-44f0-b368-00ce449264fc
Street, Nathaniel R.
059730be-153a-4108-a5b1-7fb747bd75f9
Robinson, Kathryn
a2d7fd3b-5723-423d-8113-bd4ecb382a43
Harris, Nicole
2d55d111-aca1-42d4-b5c8-7157ee67ad3d
Taylor, Gail
Rae, Anne M.
59c24658-bfd8-44f0-b368-00ce449264fc
Street, Nathaniel R.
059730be-153a-4108-a5b1-7fb747bd75f9
Robinson, Kathryn
a2d7fd3b-5723-423d-8113-bd4ecb382a43
Harris, Nicole
2d55d111-aca1-42d4-b5c8-7157ee67ad3d
Taylor, Gail

Rae, Anne M., Street, Nathaniel R., Robinson, Kathryn, Harris, Nicole and Taylor, Gail (2009) Five QTL hotspots for yield in short rotation coppice bioenergy poplar: the poplar biomass loci. BMC Plant Biology, 9 (1), 1-13. (doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-23). (PMID:19245718)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background: Concern over land use for non-food bioenergy crops requires breeding programmes that focus on producing biomass on the minimum amount of land that is economically-viable. To achieve this, the maximum potential yield per hectare is a key target for improvement. For long lived tree species, such as poplar, this requires an understanding of the traits that contribute to biomass production and their genetic control. An important aspect of this for long lived plants is an understanding of genetic interactions at different developmental stages, i.e. how genes or genetic regions impact on yield over time.

Results: QTL mapping identified regions of genetic control for biomass yield. We mapped consistent QTL across multiple coppice cycles and identified five robust QTL hotspots on linkage groups III, IV, X, XIV and XIX, calling these 'Poplar Biomass Loci' (PBL 1–5). In total 20% of the variation in final harvest biomass yield was explained by mapped QTL. We also investigated the genetic correlations between yield related traits to identify 'early diagnostic' indicators of yield showing that early biomass was a reasonable predictor of coppice yield and that leaf size, cell number and stem and sylleptic branch number were also valuable traits.

Conclusion: These findings provide insight into the genetic control of biomass production and correlation to 'early diagnostic' traits determining yield in poplar SRC for bioenergy. QTL hotspots serve as useful targets for directed breeding for improved biomass productivity that may also be relevant across additional poplar hybrids.

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Published date: 26 February 2009
Organisations: Biological Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 142991
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/142991
ISSN: 1471-2229
PURE UUID: 14802af3-5ac5-496b-b78d-52d54609e461

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Date deposited: 08 Apr 2010 10:15
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 00:42

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Contributors

Author: Anne M. Rae
Author: Nathaniel R. Street
Author: Kathryn Robinson
Author: Nicole Harris
Author: Gail Taylor

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