Title
Detection of quantitative trait loci associated with drought tolerance in St. Augustinegrass
Date Issued
01 October 2019
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Public Library of Science
Abstract
St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) is a warm-season grass species commonly utilized as turf in the southeastern US. Improvement in the drought tolerance of St. Augustinegrass has significant value within the turfgrass industry. Detecting quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with drought tolerance will allow for advanced breeding strategies to identify St. Augustinegrass germplasm with improved performance for this trait. A multiyear and multi-environment study was performed to identify QTL in a ‘Raleigh’ x ‘Seville’ mapping population segregating for phenotypic traits associated with drought tolerance. Phenotypic data was collected from a field trial and a two-year greenhouse study, which included relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll content (CHC), leaf firing (LF), leaf wilting (LW), green cover (GC) and normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI). Significant phenotypic variance was observed and a total of 70 QTL were detected for all traits. A genomic region on linkage group R6 simultaneously harbored QTL for RWC, LF and LW in different experiments. In addition, overlapping QTL for GC, LF, LW and NDVI were found on linkage groups R1, R5, R7 and S2. Sequence alignment analysis revealed several drought response genes within these regions. The QTL identified in this study have potential to be used in the future to identify genes associated with drought tolerance and for use in marker-assisted breeding.
Volume
14
Issue
10
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Biotecnología ambiental
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85074344406
PubMed ID
Source
PLoS ONE
ISSN of the container
19326203
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus