39 research outputs found
TRANSCRIPTIONAL ANALYSIS OF EIGHT MAGIC MAIZE PARENTAL LINES INFECTED WITH FUSARIUM VERTICILLIOIDES
Maize (Zea mays L.) is among the most important crops worldwide for food,
feed, biofuels, and industrial applications. Its cultivation faces
significant constraints due to Fusarium species that affect the quality and
quantity of maize products. Among these, Fusarium verticillioides is
responsible for severe diseases including seedling blights, stalk rot, and
ear rot. The impact of the fungus is worsened by the fact that chemical and
agronomic measures used to control Fusarium infection are often
inefficient. Hence, genetic resistance is considered the most reliable
resource to reduce damages caused by F. verticillioides. This study aims to
elucidate the genetic basis of resistance to this fungus in maize. Young
seedlings of eight divergent maize lines, founder of the MAGIC population,
were artificially inoculated with a F. verticillioides strain using the
rolled towel assay method. Total RNA was extracted from both control and
treated samples after 72 hours of artificial inoculation and underwent
paired-end sequenced with Illumina technology. Here we report the use this
large transcriptomic dataset to identify the early transcriptional changes
and the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in fungal infection.
The analysis identified several hundred DEGs, whose functions were explored
through Gene Ontology enrichment analysis. A co-expression network analysis
further refined the set of genes with potential implications in disease
response. The results identify a limited set of genes that might play an
important roles in maize resistance to F. verticillioides providing new
insights into the molecular resistance mechanisms against the pathogen
CHARACTERIZING HETEROSIS IN A SET OF RECOMBINANT INTERCROSSES (RIXS) DEVELOPED FROM A MULTIPARENTAL MAIZE POPULATION
The exploitation of heterosis is key in modern maize breeding to capture
the superior performance of heterozygous genotypes. Here, we developed a
recombinant intercross (RIX) population in maize by crossing pairs of multiparental
MAGIC recombinant inbred lines (RILs) to evaluate the heterosis
across mosaics of eight maize haplotypes. Field phenotyping was performed
on 400 RIX genotypes considering 11 agronomic traits as well as the
resistance to Fusarium Ear Rot (FER), caused by Fusarium verticillioides
(Sacc.) Nirenberg, in 2018 and 2019 in Piacenza, northern Italy. Phenotypic
data showed a broad range of diversity in production and phenology traits
thanks to the high level of allelic diversity available in parental
genomes. The heterotic response of agronomic traits was computed based on
RIL values as mid parent heterosis (MPH) and best parent heterosis (BPH).
Both heterosis measures showed different magnitudes for different traits,
with higher level of heterosis in yield and lower in flowering time,
suggesting effects from partial dominance to over-dominance. No correlation
was observed between phenotypic performance and heterozygosity level of
RIXs for most of the agronomic traits. A preliminary quantitative trait
locus (QTL) mapping detected a number of significant associations with
agronomic traits across all chromosomes. The RIX collection showed a
moderate heritability of FER resistance, and QTL were associated to this
trait as well. The allelic effect estimates by our mapping model indicated
the presence of minor effect QTL with relatively small additive effects on
disease resistance in both years. Our findings confirm the usefulness of
the RIX population to decipher heterotic loci in maize and support
utilizing this resource in future to accelerate crop improvement
Development of SSR markers and genetic diversity analysis in enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman), an orphan food security crop from Southern Ethiopia
Correlation analysis of the transcriptome of growing leaves with mature leaf parameters in a maize RIL population
Spazi per conoscere crescere confrontarsi: progetto per un nuovo polo scolastico a Reggio Emilia
Sono sperimentate le potenzialitĂ progettuali della strategia pedagogica formulata da Reggio Children. Alla invenzione di spazi flessibili, adatti modalitĂ di organizzazione delle attivitĂ didattiche strutturate e libere molto diversificate, si affianca lâapplicazione di materiali ecologicamente sostenibili