Joint QTL Linkage Mapping for Multiple-Cross Mating Design Sharing One Common Parent

BACKGROUND: Nested association mapping (NAM) is a novel genetic mating design that combines the advantages of linkage analysis and association mapping. This design provides opportunities to study the inheritance of complex traits, but also requires more advanced statistical methods. In this paper, we present the detailed algorithm of a QTL linkage mapping method suitable for genetic populations derived from NAM designs. This method is called joint inclusive composite interval mapping (JICIM). Simulations were designed on the detected QTL in a maize NAM population and an Arabidopsis NAM population so as to evaluate the efficiency of the NAM design and the JICIM method. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Fifty-two QTL were identified in the maize population, explaining 89% of the phenotypic variance of days to silking, and nine QTL were identified in the Arabidopsis population, explaining 83% of the phenotypic variance of flowering time. Simulations indicated that the detection power of these identified QTL was consistently high, especially for large-effect QTL. For rare QTL having significant effects in only one family, the power of correct detection within the 5 cM support interval was around 80% for 1-day effect QTL in the maize population, and for 3-day effect QTL in the Arabidopsis population. For smaller-effect QTL, the power diminished, e.g., it was around 50% for maize QTL with an effect of 0.5 day. When QTL were linked at a distance of 5 cM, the likelihood of mapping them as two distinct QTL was about 70% in the maize population. When the linkage distance was 1 cM, they were more likely mapped as one single QTL at an intermediary position. CONCLUSIONS: Because it takes advantage of the large genetic variation among parental lines and the large population size, NAM is a powerful multiple-cross design for complex trait dissection. JICIM is an efficient and specialty method for the joint QTL linkage mapping of genetic populations derived from the NAM design

The Oslo Health Study: Is bone mineral density higher in affluent areas?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Based on previously reported differences in fracture incidence in the socioeconomic less affluent Oslo East compared to the more privileged West, our aim was to study bone mineral density (BMD) in the same socioeconomic areas in Oslo. We also wanted to study whether possible associations were explained by socio-demographic factors, level of education or lifestyle factors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Distal forearm BMD was measured in random samples of the participants in The Oslo Health Study by single energy x-ray absorptiometry (SXA). 578 men and 702 women born in Norway in the age-groups 40/45, 60 and 75 years were included in the analyses. Socioeconomic regions, based on a social index dividing Oslo in two regions – East and West, were used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Age-adjusted mean BMD in women living in the less affluent Eastern region was 0.405 g/cm²and significantly lower than in West where BMD was 0.419 g/cm². Similarly, the odds ratio of low BMD (Z-score ≤ -1) was 1.87 (95% CI: 1.22–2.87) in women in Oslo East compared to West. The same tendency, although not statistically significant, was also present in men. Multivariate analysis adjusted for education, marital status, body mass index, physical inactivity, use of alcohol and smoking, and in women also use of post-menopausal hormone therapy and early onset of menopause, did hardly change the association. Additional adjustments for employment status, disability pension and physical activity at work for those below the age of retirement, gave similar results.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We found differences in BMD in women between different socioeconomic regions in Oslo that correspond to previously found differences in fracture rates. The association in men was not statistically significant. The differences were not explained by socio-demographic factors, level of education or lifestyle factors.</p

Genetic Structure, Linkage Disequilibrium and Signature of Selection in Sorghum: Lessons from Physically Anchored DArT Markers

Population structure, extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) as well as signatures of selection were investigated in sorghum using a core sample representative of worldwide diversity. A total of 177 accessions were genotyped with 1122 informative physically anchored DArT markers. The properties of DArTs to describe sorghum genetic structure were compared to those of SSRs and of previously published RFLP markers. Model-based (STRUCTURE software) and Neighbor-Joining diversity analyses led to the identification of 6 groups and confirmed previous evolutionary hypotheses. Results were globally consistent between the different marker systems. However, DArTs appeared more robust in terms of data resolution and bayesian group assignment. Whole genome linkage disequilibrium as measured by mean r2 decreased from 0.18 (between 0 to 10 kb) to 0.03 (between 100 kb to 1 Mb), stabilizing at 0.03 after 1 Mb. Effects on LD estimations of sample size and genetic structure were tested using i. random sampling, ii. the Maximum Length SubTree algorithm (MLST), and iii. structure groups. Optimizing population composition by the MLST reduced the biases in small samples and seemed to be an efficient way of selecting samples to make the best use of LD as a genome mapping approach in structured populations. These results also suggested that more than 100,000 markers may be required to perform genome-wide association studies in collections covering worldwide sorghum diversity. Analysis of DArT markers differentiation between the identified genetic groups pointed out outlier loci potentially linked to genes controlling traits of interest, including disease resistance genes for which evidence of selection had already been reported. In addition, evidence of selection near a homologous locus of FAR1 concurred with sorghum phenotypic diversity for sensitivity to photoperiod

Patterns of polymorphism and linkage disequilibrium in cultivated barley

We carried out a genome-wide analysis of polymorphism (4,596 SNP loci across 190 elite cultivated accessions) chosen to represent the available genetic variation in current elite North West European and North American barley germplasm. Population sub-structure, patterns of diversity and linkage disequilibrium varied considerably across the seven barley chromosomes. Gene-rich and rarely recombining haplotype blocks that may represent up to 60% of the physical length of barley chromosomes extended across the ‘genetic centromeres’. By positioning 2,132 bi-parentally mapped SNP markers with minimum allele frequencies higher than 0.10 by association mapping, 87.3% were located to within 5 cM of their original genetic map position. We show that at this current marker density genetically diverse populations of relatively small size are sufficient to fine map simple traits, providing they are not strongly stratified within the sample, fall outside the genetic centromeres and population sub-structure is effectively controlled in the analysis. Our results have important implications for association mapping, positional cloning, physical mapping and practical plant breeding in barley and other major world cereals including wheat and rye that exhibit comparable genome and genetic features

Effect of population structure corrections on the results of association mapping tests in complex maize diversity panels

Association mapping of sequence polymorphisms underlying the phenotypic variability of quantitative agronomical traits is now a widely used method in plant genetics. However, due to the common presence of a complex genetic structure within the plant diversity panels, spurious associations are expected to be highly frequent. Several methods have thus been suggested to control for panel structure. They mainly rely on ad hoc criteria for selecting the number of ancestral groups; which is often not evident for the complex panels that are commonly used in maize. It was thus necessary to evaluate the effect of the selected structure models on the association mapping results. A real maize data set (342 maize inbred lines and 12,000 SNPs) was used for this study. The panel structure was estimated using both Bayesian and dimensional reduction methods, considering an increasing number of ancestral groups. Effect on association tests depends in particular on the number of ancestral groups and on the trait analyzed. The results also show that using a high number of ancestral groups leads to an over-corrected model in which all causal loci vanish. Finally the results of all models tested were combined in a meta-analysis approach. In this way, robust associations were highlighted for each analyzed trait

Genetic Variation of HvCBF Genes and Their Association with Salinity Tolerance in Tibetan Annual Wild Barley

The evaluation of both the genetic variation and the identification of salinity tolerant accessions of Tibetan annual wild barley (hereafter referred to as Tibetan barley) (Hordeum vulgare L. ssp. Spontaneum and H. vulgare L. ssp. agriocrithum) are essential for discovering and exploiting novel alleles involved in salinity tolerance. In this study, we examined tissue dry biomass and the Na+ and K+ contents of 188 Tibetan barley accessions in response to salt stress. We investigated the genetic variation of transcription factors HvCBF1, HvCBF3 and HvCBF4 within these accessions, conducting association analysis between these three genes and the respective genotypic salt tolerance. Salt stress significantly reduced shoot and root dry weight by 27.6% to 73.1% in the Tibetan barley lines. HvCBF1, HvCBF3 and HvCBF4 showed diverse sequence variation in amplicon as evident by the identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 3, 8 and 13 haplotypes, respectively. Furthermore, the decay of Linkage disequilibrium (LD) of chromosome 5 was 8.9 cM (r2<0.1). Marker bpb-4891 and haplotype 13 (Ps 610) of the HvCBF4 gene were significantly (P<0.05) and highly significantly (P<0.001) associated with salt tolerance. However, HvCBF1 and HvCBF3 genes were not associated with salinity tolerance. The accessions from haplotype 13 of the HvCBF4 gene showed high salinity tolerance, maintaining significantly lower Na+/K+ ratios and higher dry weight. It is thus proposed that these Tibetan barley accessions could be of value for enhancing salinity tolerance in cultivated barley