A Sorghum Mutant Resource as an Efficient Platform for Gene Discovery in Grasses

Jiao, Y., Burke, J. J., Chopra, R., Burow, G., Chen, J., Wang, B., Hayes, C., Emendack, Y., Ware, D., Xin, Z. (July 2016) A Sorghum Mutant Resource as an Efficient Platform for Gene Discovery in Grasses. Plant Cell, 28 (7). pp. 1551-1562. ISSN 1532-298X (Electronic)1040-4651 (Linking)

URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27354556
DOI: 10.1105/tpc.16.00373

Abstract

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is a versatile C4 crop and a model for research in family Poaceae. High-quality genome sequence is available for the elite inbred line BTx623, but functional validation of genes remains challenging due to the limited genomic and germplasm resources available for comprehensive analysis of induced mutations. In this study, we generated 6,400 pedigreed M4 mutant pools from ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS)-mutagenized BTx623 seeds through single-seed descent. Whole-genome sequencing of 256 phenotyped mutant lines revealed > 1.8 million canonical EMS-induced mutations, affecting >95% of genes in the sorghum genome. The vast majority (97.5%) of the induced mutations were distinct from natural variations. To demonstrate the utility of the sequenced sorghum mutant resource, we performed reverse genetics to identify eight genes potentially affecting drought tolerance, three of which had allelic mutations and two of which exhibited exact co-segregation with the phenotype of interest. Our results establish that a large-scale resource of sequenced pedigreed mutants provides an efficient platform for functional validation of genes in sorghum, thereby accelerating sorghum breeding. Moreover, findings made in sorghum could be readily translated to other members of the Poaceae via integrated genomics approaches.

Item Type: Paper
Subjects: bioinformatics
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics
organism description > plant
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Ware lab
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: July 2016
Date Deposited: 01 Jul 2016 16:28
Last Modified: 30 Aug 2016 20:06
PMCID: PMC4981137
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/32935

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