Traits measured in a phenotyping platform disentangle the genetic yield maintenance in specific drought-prone environmental scenarios.

MILLET, E.; PEREZ, R.; TARDIEU, F.; GRANATO, I.; CABRERA-BOSQUET, L.; COUPEL-LEDRU, A.; ALVAREZ PRADO, S.; ALLARD, A.; WELCKER, C.

Freising

Conferencia; XXIVth EUCARPIA Maize and Sorghum Conference - Integrating quantitative and molecular genetics to develop new breeding methods in maize and sorghum; 2019

EUCARPIA

Phenomics allows dissection of the genetic variability of adaptation traits. However, the relevance of phenotyping under controlled conditions is questioned. We aimed at testing to what extent a cross-scale analyses allows better understanding of the allelic diversity of traits for drought tolerance understood with a probabilistic aspect. Functional and architectural traits, gene expression and response curves toenvironmental variables acquired in a phenotyping platform were analyzed bygenome-wide association mapping in a panel of 244 maize dent lines crossed with a common flint parent. The resulting set of QTLs was analysed for co-localization with QTLs for grain yield (GY) in 29 fields, clustered in six environmental scenarios combining temperature and soil water status during flowering time as measured in each field.35% of QTLs for GY co-localized with traits measured in the phenotyping platform, but with patterns of co-localization that depended on the environmental scenario for the studied field. The cumulative effect of trait QTLs accounted for an appreciable proportion of the additive genetic variance for scenario-dependent GY. These results provide insights for understanding the genetic basis of drought tolerance. Furthermore, these genomic regions may be useful for designing maize plants adapted to specific drought-prone European regions.