High frequency DNA rearrangement at qγ27 creates a novel allele for Quality Protein Maize breeding

Hongjun Liu; Yongcai Huang; Xiaohan Li; Haihai Wang; Yahui Ding; Congbin Kang; Mingfei Sun; Fangyuan Li; Jiechen Wang; Yiting Deng; Xuerong Yang; Xing Huang; Xiaoyan Gao; Lingling Yuan; Dong An; Wenqin Wang; David R Holding; Yongrui Wu

doi:10.1038/s42003-019-0711-0

High frequency DNA rearrangement at qγ27 creates a novel allele for Quality Protein Maize breeding

Commun Biol. 2019 Dec 10:2:460. doi: 10.1038/s42003-019-0711-0. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Hongjun Liu^#¹, Yongcai Huang^#^{2

3}, Xiaohan Li^#¹, Haihai Wang², Yahui Ding¹, Congbin Kang¹, Mingfei Sun¹, Fangyuan Li¹, Jiechen Wang², Yiting Deng², Xuerong Yang¹, Xing Huang^{2

3}, Xiaoyan Gao², Lingling Yuan⁴, Dong An⁵, Wenqin Wang⁵, David R Holding⁴, Yongrui Wu²

Affiliations

¹ 1State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271018 China.
² 2National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032 China.
³ 3University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China.
⁴ 4Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, Center for Plant Science Innovation, Beadle Center for Biotechnology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0665 USA.
⁵ 5School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Copy number variation (CNV) is a major source of genetic variation and often contributes to phenotypic variation in maize. The duplication at the 27-kDa γ-zein locus (qγ27) is essential to convert soft endosperm into hard endosperm in quality protein maize (QPM). This duplication is unstable and generally produces CNV at this locus. We conducted genetic experiments designed to directly measure DNA rearrangement frequencies occurring in males and females of different genetic backgrounds. The average frequency with which the duplication rearranges to single copies is 1.27 × 10^-3 and varies among different lines. A triplication of γ27 gene was screened and showed a better potential than the duplication for the future QPM breeding. Our results highlight a novel approach to directly determine the frequency of DNA rearrangements, in this case resulting in CNV at the qγ27 locus. Furthermore, this provides a highly effective way to test suitable parents in QPM breeding.

Keywords: Agricultural genetics; Genome duplication.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Alleles*
Endosperm
Gene Frequency*
Gene Rearrangement*
Genetic Loci
Inbreeding
Models, Molecular
Plant Breeding*
Plant Proteins / genetics*
Zea mays / genetics

Substances

Plant Proteins