Plant & Animal Genomes XVI Conference

January 12-16, 2008
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Developing Association Mapping In Polyploid Perennial Biofuel Grasses

Edward S. Buckler¹ , Michael D. Casler³ , Jerome H. Cherney⁴ , Denise E. Costich¹ , Ainong Shi²

¹  USDA-ARS, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

²  Institute for Genomic Diversity, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

³  USDA-ARS, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

⁴  Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

The genetic dissection of biomass characteristics and yield is fundamental to the goal of accelerating the breeding programs for enhanced biomass production of biofuel crops. By capitalizing on recent advances in genomics-based research, coupled with decades of fundamental whole-organism and population-based research by forage breeders, we have initiated an association-mapping study of two important biofuel grasses, switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) and reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.). The major motivation for applying association mapping in switchgrass and reed canarygrass, for which there are, at present, limited genetic resources, is the identification of molecular markers that are tightly linked to biomass-related trait loci, thus enabling marker assisted selection for improved varieties adapted to environments across the US.
Association panels consisting of diverse germplasm and linkage populations for both species (~1000 clones each) have already been assembled. Trait evaluation for seven key biofeedstock characteristics will be carried out in replicated populations in NY and WI that will be established in Spring 2008. This project will focus its marker development efforts on switchgrass, developing high density SNP markers that will enable us to: 1) genotype association panels and linkage populations; 2) evaluate population structure and germplasm diversity; 3) establish association mapping and 4) estimate marker based breeding values.