title: The use of combining ability analysis to identify elite parents for Artemisia annua F1 hybrid production.
abstract: Artemisia annua is an important medicinal crop used for the production of the anti-malarial compound artemisinin. In order to assist in the production of affordable high quality artemisinin we have carried out an A. annua breeding programme aimed at improving artemisinin concentration and biomass. Here we report on a combining ability analysis of a diallel cross to identify robust parental lines for hybrid breeding. The parental lines were selected based on a range of phenotypic traits to encourage heterosis. The general combining ability (GCA) values for the diallel parental lines correlated to the positive alleles of quantitative trait loci (QTL) in the same parents indicating the presence of beneficial alleles that contribute to parental performance. Hybrids generated from crossing specific parental lines with good GCA were identified as having an increase in both artemisinin concentration and biomass when grown either in glasshouse or experimental field trials and compared to controls. This study demonstrates that combining ability as determined by a diallel cross can be used to identify elite parents for the production of improved A. annua hybrids. Furthermore, the selection of material for breeding using this approach was found to be consistent with our QTL-based molecular breeding approach.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, Department of Biology, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Theresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Townsend
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Segura
authors.forename: Godfree
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chigeza
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Penfield
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rae
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.forename: Dianna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bowles
authors.forename: Ian A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Graham
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000378:metabolism*; D031172:Artemisia annua / Q000235:genetics*; D037621:Artemisinins / Q000378:metabolism*; D018533:Biomass; D001947:Breeding; D002678:Chimera / Q000235:genetics*; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D006823:Hybrid Vigor; D010641:Phenotype; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D037621:Artemisinins; C031327:artemisinin