QTL mapping of a high protein digestibility trait in Sorghum bicolor. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Compared with other cereal grains, Sorghum bicolor shows lower protein digestibility. The low digestibility is thought to result from disulfide cross linking in the beta- and gamma-kafirins. In contrast, the single recessive high digestibility/high lysine content (HD) mutation which confers greater grain digestibility exists in sorghum that is thought to result from reduced accumulation of gamma-kafirin that allows greater access to the high digestible alpha-kafarin fraction. In an effort to both clearly define the molecular basis for the HD trait and develop tools to improve the introgression of this difficult-to-screen trait, this study focuses on mapping the QTLs linked to this trait. While the HD trait has been defined as a single recessive gene, our results uncovered that two major QTLs on chromosome 1 are associated with protein digestibility-one QTL (locus 1 from the HD parent) unfavorably affects digestibility and one QTL (locus 2 from the HD parent) only 20 cM away favorably affects digestibility. A contrast analysis between genotypic groups at these two loci shows that a higher level of protein digestibility may be obtained when this linkage in repulsion is broken and favorable alleles are allowed to recombine.

published proceedings

  • Int J Plant Genomics

altmetric score

  • 0.25

author list (cited authors)

  • Winn, J. A., Mason, R. E., Robbins, A. L., Rooney, W. L., & Hays, D. B.

citation count

  • 25

complete list of authors

  • Winn, Jennifer A||Mason, R Esten||Robbins, Adriana L||Rooney, William L||Hays, Dirk B

publication date

  • July 2009