TY - JOUR
T1 - An epigenetic breeding system in soybean for increased yield and stability
AU - Raju, Sunil K.Kenchanmane
AU - Shao, Mon Ray
AU - Sanchez, Robersy
AU - Xu, Ying Zhi
AU - Sandhu, Ajay
AU - Graef, George
AU - Mackenzie, Sally
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the UNL transformation core facility for soybean transformation and Travis Scheuler, Daniel Jaber, Aaron Hoagland and John Rajeswki for help with field experiments. This work was partially supported by grants from National Science Foundation (IOS1126935) and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1088661) to S.M.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Authors. Plant Biotechnology Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and The Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2018/11
Y1 - 2018/11
N2 - Epigenetic variation has been associated with a wide range of adaptive phenotypes in plants, but there exist few direct means for exploiting this variation. RNAi suppression of the plant-specific gene, MutS HOMOLOG1 (MSH1), in multiple plant species produces a range of developmental changes accompanied by modulation of defence, phytohormone and abiotic stress response pathways along with methylome repatterning. This msh1-conditioned developmental reprogramming is retained independent of transgene segregation, giving rise to transgene-null ‘memory’ effects. An isogenic memory line crossed to wild type produces progeny families displaying increased variation in adaptive traits that respond to selection. This study investigates amenability of the MSH1 system for inducing agronomically valuable epigenetic variation in soybean. We developed MSH1 epi-populations by crossing with msh1-acquired soybean memory lines. Derived soybean epi-lines showed increase in variance for multiple yield-related traits including pods per plant, seed weight and maturity time in both glasshouse and field trials. Selected epi-F 2:4 and epi-F 2:5 lines showed an increase in seed yield over wild type. By epi-F 2:6, we observed a return of MSH1-derived enhanced growth back to wild-type levels. Epi-populations also showed evidence of reduced epitype-by-environment (e × E) interaction, indicating higher yield stability. Transcript profiling of epi-lines identified putative signatures of enhanced growth behaviour across generations. Genes related to cell cycle, abscisic acid biosynthesis and auxin response, particularly SMALL AUXIN UP RNAs (SAURs), were differentially expressed in epi-F 2:4 lines that showed increased yield when compared to epi-F 2:6 . These data support the potential of MSH1-derived epigenetic variation in plant breeding for enhanced yield and yield stability.
AB - Epigenetic variation has been associated with a wide range of adaptive phenotypes in plants, but there exist few direct means for exploiting this variation. RNAi suppression of the plant-specific gene, MutS HOMOLOG1 (MSH1), in multiple plant species produces a range of developmental changes accompanied by modulation of defence, phytohormone and abiotic stress response pathways along with methylome repatterning. This msh1-conditioned developmental reprogramming is retained independent of transgene segregation, giving rise to transgene-null ‘memory’ effects. An isogenic memory line crossed to wild type produces progeny families displaying increased variation in adaptive traits that respond to selection. This study investigates amenability of the MSH1 system for inducing agronomically valuable epigenetic variation in soybean. We developed MSH1 epi-populations by crossing with msh1-acquired soybean memory lines. Derived soybean epi-lines showed increase in variance for multiple yield-related traits including pods per plant, seed weight and maturity time in both glasshouse and field trials. Selected epi-F 2:4 and epi-F 2:5 lines showed an increase in seed yield over wild type. By epi-F 2:6, we observed a return of MSH1-derived enhanced growth back to wild-type levels. Epi-populations also showed evidence of reduced epitype-by-environment (e × E) interaction, indicating higher yield stability. Transcript profiling of epi-lines identified putative signatures of enhanced growth behaviour across generations. Genes related to cell cycle, abscisic acid biosynthesis and auxin response, particularly SMALL AUXIN UP RNAs (SAURs), were differentially expressed in epi-F 2:4 lines that showed increased yield when compared to epi-F 2:6 . These data support the potential of MSH1-derived epigenetic variation in plant breeding for enhanced yield and yield stability.
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U2 - 10.1111/pbi.12919
DO - 10.1111/pbi.12919
M3 - Article
C2 - 29570925
AN - SCOPUS:85046429775
VL - 16
SP - 1836
EP - 1847
JO - Plant Biotechnology Journal
JF - Plant Biotechnology Journal
SN - 1467-7644
IS - 11
ER -