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Impacts of population structure and analytical models in genome-wide association studies of complex traits in forest trees: a case study in Eucalyptus globulus.

ABSTRACT: The promise of association genetics to identify genes or genomic regions controlling complex traits has generated a flurry of interest. Such phenotype-genotype associations could be useful to accelerate tree breeding cycles, increase precision and selection intensity for late expressing, low heritability traits. However, the prospects of association genetics in highly heterozygous undomesticated forest trees can be severely impacted by the presence of cryptic population and pedigree structure. To investigate how to better account for this, we compared the GLM and five combinations of the Unified Mixed Model ( UMM ) on data of a low-density genome-wide association study for growth and wood property traits carried out in a Eucalyptus globulus population (n = 303) with 7,680 Diversity Array Technology (DArT) markers. Model comparisons were based on the degree of deviation from the uniform distribution and estimates of the mean square differences between the observed and expected p-values of all significant marker-trait associations detected. Our analysis revealed the presence of population and family structure. There was not a single best model for all traits. Striking differences in detection power and accuracy were observed among the different models especially when population structure was not accounted for. The UMM method was the best and produced superior results when compared to GLM for all traits. Following stringent correction for false discoveries, 18 marker-trait associations were detected, 16 for tree diameter growth and two for lignin monomer composition (S:G ratio), a key wood property trait. The two DArT markers associated with S:G ratio on chromosome 10, physically map within 1 Mbp of the ferulate 5-hydroxylase (F5H) gene, providing a putative independent validation of this marker-trait association. This study details the merit of collectively integrate population structure and relatedness in association analyses in undomesticated, highly heterozygous forest trees, and provides additional insights into the nature of complex quantitative traits in Eucalyptus.

SUBMITTER: Cappa EP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3839935 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:In order to pinpoint the most differentially expressed genes between Eucalyptus grandis leaf blades and vascular (xylem) tissues as well as between E. grandis and Eucalyptus globulus xylem tissues, a total number of nine 50mer-oligoprobes covering the length of each one of 21,432 unique sequences derived from the Genolyptus EST dataset were synthesized “on-chip” in duplicate, randomly distributed in two blocks of each slide. Probes were also synthesized from ten cDNA sequences encoding known human proteins as negative controls, totaling 21,442 sequences. Leaves and xylem samples were taken from two E. grandis clonal trees, i.e., both derived from the same matrix tree and harboring the same genotype. Two additional xylem samples were collected from two other E. grandis clonal trees of a different genotype, as well as from two E. globulus clonal trees. Therefore, ten cDNA samples and ten identical chips were produced at Roche NimbleGen for the microarray assays, with a total number of 385,956 features per slide. Besides the discovery of differentially expressed genes between leaf and xylem, we wanted to test the validity of the assumed “technical” and “biological duplicates” since all trees were field-grown and four years-old in age. A ten chip study using total RNA recovered from mature leaf and vascular (xylem) tissues of Eucalyptus grandis and xylem from Eucalyptus globulus trees. Two clonal trees of E. grandis (E.grandis_Clone A_Ramet 1 and E.grandis_Clone A_Ramet 2), derived from a single matrix tree and therefore genomically identical, were the source of two samples of leaf RNA and two samples of xylem RNA, individually hybridized to four chips after cDNA synthesis/Cy3 labeling. Two other clonal trees of E. grandis (E.grandis_Clone B_Ramet 1 and E.grandis_Clone B_Ramet 2), derived from a different matrix tree, were the source of two additional samples of xylem RNA individually hybridized to four chips after cDNA synthesis/Cy3 labeling. Likewise, two pairs of clonal trees of E. globulus (E.globulus_Clone A_Ramet 1 and E.globulus_Clone A_Ramet 2/ E.globulus_Clone B_Ramet 1 and E.globulus_Clone B_Ramet 2), derived from two distinct matrix trees, were the source of four additional samples of xylem RNA, individually hybridized to four chips after cDNA synthesis/Cy3 labeling. Each chip measures the expression level of 21,432 genes from Eucalyptus sp. and ten human genes (negative controls) with nine 50-mer probe pairs (PM/MM) per gene in two separate blocks per chip (technical duplicate), totalizing 18 hybridization signal values per gene per chip.

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Impacts of population structure and analytical models in genome-wide association studies of complex traits in forest trees: a case study in Eucalyptus globulus.

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