Waxy allele diversity in waxy maize landraces of Yunnan Province, China

Waxy maize is one of the main fresh-eating maize types,and a mutation of the waxy gene causes the waxy character of maize grains.China is rich in waxy maize landraces,and Yunnan and its surrounding areas,are the place of origin and genetic diversity center of Chinese waxy maize.The six known waxy alleles of Chinese waxy maize are wx-D7,wx-D10,wx-Cin4,wx-124,wx-Reina,and wx-Xuanwei.The mutation sites of these alleles all occur in the coding region of the waxy gene,however,the mechanism by which the waxy characteristic is caused by the mutation in the regulatory region has only been reported rarely in maize.In this study,405 waxy maize landraces from Yunnan were used as materials to identify the insertion and deletion of a large sequence fragment in the upstream~3.5 kb regulatory region of the waxy gene by molecular marker detection.Three different waxy alleles were identifed in this study:wx-PIF/Harbinger,wx-hAT and wxElote2.These three types of mutations all represented transposons inserted into the regulatory region of the waxy gene.Wx-PIF/Harbinger was a 304-bp MITE class transposon insertion belonging to the PIF/Harbinger family,while wx-hAT was a 560-bp MITE class transposon insertion belonging to the hAT family,and wx-Elote2 was a 6560-bp LTR-like transposon insertion.In this study,the alleles were identifed for more than 70%of the waxy maize landraces in Yunnan,which provids a basis for the utilization of these waxy maize landraces.

Association Analysis of Quantitative Traits in F_1 Families Derived from Two Maize Landraces

[ Objective] The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity and characterization of special maize population consisting of 135 Fl fami- lies. [ Method ] In this study, association analysis was conducted in 135 F1 families derived from two maize landraces, and the efficiency of this method was evalua- ted through simulation. [ Result] Association analysis with different kinds of families showed that large population size and robust phenotypic data were required for association mapping. For all the phenotypic traits, the model controlling beth population structure and relative kinship （ Q ＋ K） performed better than the model controlling relative kinship （K）, and similarly to the model controlling population structure （Q）. Across 100 simulation runs in QULINE, the average power of QTL detection for the two models were 88.64% and 83.64% respectively, and the number of false QTL was reduced from 399 with GLM model to 199 with K mod- el. Our simulation results suggested that these F1 families can be used for association analysis, and the power of the QTL detection was related to the maximum al- lele frequency （MAF）and the phenotypic variation （PVE） explained by QTL. [ Conclusion] The results from this study suggest that association analysis using the F1 families is an effective approach to study maize landraces for discovering elite genes which we are interested in from these special populations.

Genetic Diversity of Two Important Groups of Maize Landraces with Same Name in China Revealed by M13 Tailed-Primer SSRs

Maize landraces White Dent and Golden Queen played a very important role in the pre-hybrid era of maize production in China. However, dozens of accessions with the same names of White Dent and Golden Queen are preserved in China National Genebank （CNG）. The present study investigated the genetic diversity of these two important groups of maize landraces, as well as the relationships within and among them. Thirty-four landrace accessions with the name of White Dent and 10 with Golden Queen preserved in CNG were fingerprinted with 52 simple sequence repeats with tailed primer M13. Summary statistics including average number of alleles per locus, gene diversity/expected heterozygosity, and observed heterozygosity were carried out using PowerMarker ver. 3.25 software. The test of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium （HWE） and linkage disequilibrium （LD） of all the 44 maize landrace accessions were also performed by PowerMarker. We observed a significant differentiation in terms of the average number of alleles between White Dent and Golden Queen （6.44 alleles per locus in White Dent, 4.48 in Golden Queen）, while both groups of maize landraces had a relatively high but similar gene diversity （0.61 of White Dent, 0.63 of Golden Queen）. The fixation index （FST） was only 0.0044, while the percentage of loci deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium within these two groups of White Dent and Golden Queen was 32.69 and 3.92%, respectively. The rather high genetic diversity and average number of alleles per locus confirmed that both groups of landraces had a rather broad germplasm base. The extremely low fixation index showed that there was little genetic variation between White Dent and Golden Queen and the molecular variation within these two groups was remarkably high, indicating no genetic drift between White Dent and Golden Queen and suggesting different improvement approaches to these two important groups of landraces. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium test revealed that the group of White Dent was deviated from HWE, whereas Golden Queen was under HWE.

A Comparative Analysis of B Chromosomes and Genetic Diversity in Maize (Zea mays L.) Landraces from Southwest China

The number of B chromosomes （Bs） in 54 maize landraces from Southwest China was tested by means of cytological observations. Nine landraces with Bs were observed. A map, showing the geographic distribution of the landraces with Bs, was plotted. It was found that southeastern Sichuan Province in China was the main distribution area of the landraces with Bs in Southwest China. In order to obtain information on relationships between Bs and genetic variation, genetic diversity both among and within 11 landraces was evaluated. For each SSR marker, the number of alleles ranged from 3 to 12 with an average of 7.86, which revealed a high level of genetic diversity among maize landraces in Southwest China. Based on SSRs data, higher genetic variation was found in the landraces with 2B, and the genetic distance between the landraces with and without Bs was higher. The results together with the principal component analysis （PCA） supported the hypothesis that maize landraces in Southwest China were first introduced to the middle part of southwest Sichuan, China. At the same time, the effect of Bs on genetic variation was discussed.