title: A genome-wide association study of plant height and primary branch number in rapeseed (Brassica napus).
abstract: Crop plant architecture plays a highly important role in its agronomic performance. Plant height (PH) and primary branch number (PB) are two major factors that affect the plant architecture of rapeseed (Brassica napus). Previous studies have shown that these two traits are controlled by multiple quantitative trait loci (QTL); however, QTLs have not been delimited to regions less than 10cM. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) is a highly efficient approach for identifying genetic loci controlling traits at relatively high resolution. In this study, variations in PH and PB of a panel of 472 rapeseed accessions that had previously been analyzed by a 60k SNP array were investigated for three consecutive years and studied by GWAS. Eight QTLs on chromosome A03, A05, A07 and C07 were identified for PH, and five QTLs on A01, A03, A07 and C07 were identified for PB. Although most QTLs have been detected in previous studies based on linkage analyses, the two QTLs of PH on A05 and the QTL of PB on C07 were novel. In the genomic regions close to the GWAS peaks, orthologs of the genes involved in flower development, phytohormone biosynthesis, metabolism and signaling in Arabidopsis were identified.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China; Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, 1-1 Tsutsumidori Amamiyamachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 981-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.
authors.forename: Biyun
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.
authors.forename: Guizhen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.
authors.forename: Guixin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.
authors.forename: Jiangwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.
authors.forename: Lixia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.
authors.forename: Tianyao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, 1-1 Tsutsumidori Amamiyamachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 981-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishio
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crop Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China. Electronic address: wuxm@oilcrops.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D029688:Brassica napus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D032461:Chromosomes, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D056726:Genetic Association Studies / Q000379:methods*; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008957:Models, Genetic; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Association mapping; Brassica napus; Plant architecture; Plant height; Primary branch number; SNP