Dataset Information

Brachypodium sylvaticum, a model for perennial grasses: transformation and inbred line development.

ABSTRACT: Perennial species offer significant advantages as crops including reduced soil erosion, lower energy inputs after the first year, deeper root systems that access more soil moisture, and decreased fertilizer inputs due to the remobilization of nutrients at the end of the growing season. These advantages are particularly relevant for emerging biomass crops and it is projected that perennial grasses will be among the most important dedicated biomass crops. The advantages offered by perennial crops could also prove favorable for incorporation into annual grain crops like wheat, rice, sorghum and barley, especially under the dryer and more variable climate conditions projected for many grain-producing regions. Thus, it would be useful to have a perennial model system to test biotechnological approaches to crop improvement and for fundamental research. The perennial grass Brachypodiumsylvaticum is a candidate for such a model because it is diploid, has a small genome, is self-fertile, has a modest stature, and short generation time. Its close relationship to the annual model Brachypodiumdistachyon will facilitate comparative studies and allow researchers to leverage the resources developed for B. distachyon. Here we report on the development of two keystone resources that are essential for a model plant: high-efficiency transformation and inbred lines. Using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation we achieved an average transformation efficiency of 67%. We also surveyed the genetic diversity of 19 accessions from the National Plant Germplasm System using SSR markers and created 15 inbred lines.

SUBMITTER: Steinwand MA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3779173 | biostudies-other | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Brachypodium sylvaticum, a model for perennial grasses: transformation and inbred line development.

Steinwand Michael A MA Young Hugh A HA Bragg Jennifer N JN Tobias Christian M CM Vogel John P JP

PloS one 20130920 9

Perennial species offer significant advantages as crops including reduced soil erosion, lower energy inputs after the first year, deeper root systems that access more soil moisture, and decreased fertilizer inputs due to the remobilization of nutrients at the end of the growing season. These advantages are particularly relevant for emerging biomass crops and it is projected that perennial grasses will be among the most important dedicated biomass crops. The advantages offered by perennial crops ...[more]

PMID: 24073248

Similar Datasets

Project description:Brachypodium distachyon (Brachypodium) is a model for the temperate grasses which include important cereals such as barley, wheat and oats. Comparison of the Brachypodium genome (accession Bd21) with those of the model dicot Arabidopsis thaliana and the tropical cereal rice (Oryza sativa) provides an opportunity to compare and contrast genetic pathways controlling important traits. We analysed the homologies of genes controlling the induction of flowering using pathways curated in Arabidopsis Reactome as a starting point. Pathways include those detecting and responding to the environmental cues of day length (photoperiod) and extended periods of low temperature (vernalization). Variation in these responses has been selected during cereal domestication, providing an interesting comparison with the wild genome of Brachypodium. Brachypodium Bd21 has well conserved homologues of circadian clock, photoperiod pathway and autonomous pathway genes defined in Arabidopsis and homologues of vernalization pathway genes defined in cereals with the exception of VRN2 which was absent. Bd21 also lacked a member of the CO family (CO3). In both cases flanking genes were conserved showing that these genes are deleted in at least this accession. Segmental duplication explains the presence of two CO-like genes in temperate cereals, of which one (Hd1) is retained in rice, and explains many differences in gene family structure between grasses and Arabidopsis. The conserved fine structure of duplications shows that they largely evolved to their present structure before the divergence of the rice and Brachypodium. Of four flowering-time genes found in rice but absent in Arabidopsis, two were found in Bd21 (Id1, OsMADS51) and two were absent (Ghd7, Ehd1). Overall, results suggest that an ancient core photoperiod pathway promoting flowering via the induction of FT has been modified by the recruitment of additional lineage specific pathways that promote or repress FT expression.

Project description:Background and aimsMorphological traits in combination with metabolite fingerprinting were used to investigate inter- and intraspecies diversity within the model annual grasses Brachypodium distachyon, Brachypodium stacei and Brachypodium hybridum .MethodsPhenotypic variation of 15 morphological characters and 2219 nominal mass ( m / z ) signals generated using flow infusion electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (FIE-MS) were evaluated in individuals from a total of 174 wild populations and six inbred lines, and 12 lines, of the three species, respectively. Basic statistics and multivariate principal component analysis and discriminant analysis were used to differentiate inter- and intraspecific variability of the two types of variable, and their association was assayed with the rcorr function.Key resultsBasic statistics and analysis of variance detected eight phenotypic characters [(stomata) leaf guard cell length, pollen grain length, (plant) height, second leaf width, inflorescence length, number of spikelets per inflorescence, lemma length, awn length] and 434 tentatively annotated metabolite signals that significantly discriminated the three species. Three phenotypic traits (pollen grain length, spikelet length, number of flowers per inflorescence) might be genetically fixed. The three species showed different metabolomic profiles. Discriminant analysis significantly discriminated the three taxa with both morphometric and metabolome traits and the intraspecific phenotypic diversity within B. distachyon and B. stacei . The populations of B. hybridum were considerably less differentiated.ConclusionsHighly explanatory metabolite signals together with morphological characters revealed concordant patterns of differentiation of the three taxa. Intraspecific phenotypic diversity was observed between northern and southern Iberian populations of B. distachyon and between eastern Mediterranean/south-western Asian and western Mediterranean populations of B. stacei . Significant association was found for pollen grain length and lemma length and ten and six metabolomic signals, respectively. These results would guide the selection of new germplasm lines of the three model grasses in ongoing genome-wide association studies.

Dataset Information

Brachypodium sylvaticum, a model for perennial grasses: transformation and inbred line development.

Publications

Brachypodium sylvaticum, a model for perennial grasses: transformation and inbred line development.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets