title: Screening of Candidate Leaf Morphology Genes by Integration of QTL Mapping and RNA Sequencing Technologies in Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.).
abstract: Leaf size and shape play important roles in agronomic traits, such as yield, quality and stress responses. Wide variations in leaf morphological traits exist in cultivated varieties of many plant species. By now, the genetics of leaf shape and size have not been characterized in Brassica napus. In this study, a population of 172 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was used for quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis of leaf morphology traits. Furthermore, fresh young leaves of extreme lines with more leaf lobes (referred to as 'A') and extreme lines with fewer lobes (referred to as 'B') selected from the RIL population and leaves of dissected lines (referred to as 'P') were used for transcriptional analysis. A total of 31 QTLs for the leaf morphological traits tested in this study were identified on 12 chromosomes, explaining 5.32-39.34% of the phenotypic variation. There were 8, 6, 2, 5, 8, and 2 QTLs for PL (petiole length), PN (lobe number), LW (lamina width), LL (Lamina length), LL/LTL (the lamina size ratio) and LTL (leaf total length), respectively. In addition, 74, 1,166 and 1,272 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in 'A vs B', 'A vs P' and 'B vs P' comparisons, respectively. The Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) databases were used to predict the functions of these DEGs. Gene regulators of leaf shape and size, such as ASYMMETRIC LEAVES 2, gibberellin 20-oxidase 3, genes encoding gibberellin-regulated family protein, genes encoding growth-regulating factor and KNOTTED1-like homeobox were also detected in DEGs. After integrating the QTL mapping and RNA sequencing data, 33 genes, including a gene encoding auxin-responsive GH3 family protein and a gene encoding sphere organelles protein-related gene, were selected as candidates that may control leaf shape. Our findings should be valuable for studies of the genetic control of leaf morphological trait regulation in B. napus.
authors.affiliation: Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Rapeseed, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hongju
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jian
authors.affiliation: Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Rapeseed, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Rapeseed, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Aoxiang
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Rapeseed, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Rapeseed, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xinfu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Rapeseed, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jiana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Rapeseed, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Liezhao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics; D029688:Brassica napus / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D019295:Computational Biology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D063245:Plant Development / Q000235:genetics*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000235:genetics*; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA