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Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering >> 2018, Volume 5, Issue 1 doi: 10.15302/J-FASE-2018201

Yield-height correlation and QTL localization for plant height in two lowland switchgrass populations

. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.. Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.. National Key Laboratory for Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Jiangsu Plant Gene Engineering Research Center, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.. Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, IL 61801, USA

Accepted: 2018-02-26 Available online: 2018-03-21

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Abstract

Switchgrass ( L.), as a model herbaceous crop species for bioenergy production, is targeted to improve biomass yield and feedstock quality. Plant height is a major component contributing to biomass yield. Accordingly, the objectives of this research were to analyze phenotypic variation for biomass and plant height and the association between them and to localize associated plant height QTLs. Two lowland switchgrass mapping populations, one selfed and another hybrid population established in the field at Perkins and Stillwater, Oklahoma, were deployed in the experiment for two years post establishment. Large genetic variation existed for plant biomass and height within the two populations. Plant height was positively correlated with biomass yield in the selfed population ( = 0.39, <0.0001) and the hybrid population ( = 0.41, <0.0001). In the selfed population, a joint analysis across all environments revealed 10 QTLs and separate analysis for each environment, collectively revealed 39 QTLs related to plant height. In the hybrid population, the joint analysis across overall environments revealed 35 QTLs and the separate analysis for each environment revealed 38 QTLs. The findings of this research contribute new information about the genetic control for plant height and will be useful for future plant breeding and genetic improvement programs in lowland switchgrass.

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