Download Genome Wide Association Study in Hap

GENOME WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDY IN HAP-MAP A. THALIANA
POPULATIONS GROWN IN CALCAREOUS SOIL
Joana Teres1, Silvia Busoms1, Xin-Yuan Huang2, Roser Tolrà1, David E. Salt2, *Charlotte
Poschenrieder1*
1 Lab.
Fisiología Vegetal Fac. Biociencias, C/ de la Vall Moronta, s.n., Universidad Autónoma de
Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra Spain. *[email protected]
2Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen.
A recent large-scale sampling in Catalonia located new wild populations of Arabidopsis
thaliana (Busoms et al., 2013; Plant Physiol. 168: 915-929). Notably, all studied populations
were found on silicate soils and analysis confirmed neutral rhizosphere pH and low carbonate
contents. However, a few inland accessions grew well in slightly carbonated soils. These
Arabidopsis ecotypes with naturally selected differences in sensitivity to soil carbonate provide
an excellent material for investigating the physiological mechanisms that are behind this
differential behaviour.
The aim of this study is to identify genes related to adaptation to soil carbonate in
Arabidopsis thaliana. For this purpose the differences in growth of 365 natural accessions of
A.thaliana (genotyped by NASC) cultivated on carbonate- rich soil were analysed. This
characterization will help to connect physiological traits for iron efficiency and carbonate
tolerance with the genes governing these processes.
To achieve this aim we used two natural soils from Mallorca. These soils had the particularity
to have very similar characteristics including structure, cation exchange capacity, field capacity,
and permanent wilting point. However, the levels of carbonates greatly differ: 60% of CaCO3 in
the high carbonate soil and 0 % of CaCO3 in the control soil. Plants of each accession were
cultivated in both soil types. Rosette diameter was measured to measure the weekly and ion
composition of leaves was determined by ICP-MS on eight week-old plants. Additionally,
chlorophyll concentrations were determined by non-destructively method with a chlorophyll
meter (OPti_Sciences, CCM 300) on a random selection of accessions. Growth and ionomic
data were used for genome wide association analysis at the GWA portal
(https://gwas.gmi.oeaw.ac.at/ ).
In general, plants grown on carbonated soil presented a lower maximum diameter in
comparison to plants grown in control soil. Plants on carbonated soil had lower chlorophyll
concentrations in comparison to plants grown in control soil. Plots from the GWAS revealed
several associated loci; most of them related to zinc transport and iron uptake. From GWAS
results, we found that mostly genes closers to the important picks (SNPs) are related with zinc
transport and iron up-take.
This information will now be used for further gene expression and physiological studies in
contrasting natural accessions of A. thaliana
Keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana, calcareous soil, carbonate, iron efficiency, GWAS
REFERENCES:
Busoms, S. et al., 2015. Plant Physiol. 168:915-929
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project BFU2013-42839-R)
We would like to thank to Dr. Catalina Cabot and Dr. Jaume Vadell for providing the soil and soil
analysis data.
Preferred Presentation format: POSTER
Selected Sessions: Iron and plant metabolism