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Genetic and physical fine mapping of the novel brown midrib gene bm6 in maize (Zea mays L.) to a 180 kb region on chromosome 2

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Abstract

Brown midrib mutants in maize are known to be associated with reduced lignin content and increased cell wall digestibility, which leads to better forage quality and higher efficiency of cellulosic biomass conversion into ethanol. Four well known brown midrib (bm) mutants, named bm1–4, were identified several decades ago. Additional recessive brown midrib mutants have been identified by allelism tests and designated as bm5 and bm6. In this study, we determined that bm6 increases cell wall digestibility and decreases plant height. bm6 was confirmed onto the short arm of chromosome 2 by a small mapping set with 181 plants from a F2 segregating population, derived from crossing B73 and a bm6 mutant line. Subsequently, 960 brown midrib individuals were selected from the same but larger F2 population for genetic and physical mapping. With newly developed markers in the target region, the bm6 gene was assigned to a 180 kb interval flanked by markers SSR_308337 and SSR_488638. In this region, ten gene models are predicted in the maize B73 sequence. Analysis of these ten genes as well as genes in the syntenic rice region revealed that four of them are promising candidate genes for bm6. Our study will facilitate isolation of the underlying gene of bm6 and advance our understanding of brown midrib gene functions.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Elizabeth Bovenmyer, Janine Comstock, and Alice Wang for help in field. We appreciate the generosity of Dr. Sarah Hake (Adjunct Professor and Center Director; Plant Gene Expression Center USDA-ARS) and Dr. Erick Vollbrecht (professor in Department of Genetics, Development and Cell biology at Iowa State University) to provide position information of bm6 gene. Yongsheng Chen was supported by the Interdepartmental Genetics Graduate Program as well as RF Baker Center for Plant Breeding at Iowa State University. Hongjun Liu is a visiting student at ISU, supported by China Scholarship Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, 50011, USA

    Yongsheng Chen, Hongjun Liu, Qing Ji, Ursula Karoline Frei & Thomas Lübberstedt

  2. Interdepartmental Genetics Program, Iowa State University, Ames, 50011, USA

    Yongsheng Chen

  3. Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Maize in Southwest Region, Maize Research Institute of Sichuan Agricultural University, Ministry of Agriculture, Wenjiang, People’s Republic of China

    Hongjun Liu

  4. Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (IBGE), Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Agricultural University, Peshawar, 25000, Pakistan

    Farhad Ali

  5. Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Ames, IA, 50011, USA

    M. Paul Scott

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  1. Yongsheng Chen
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  3. Farhad Ali
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Correspondence to Thomas Lübberstedt.

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Communicated by M. Xu.

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Chen, Y., Liu, H., Ali, F. et al. Genetic and physical fine mapping of the novel brown midrib gene bm6 in maize (Zea mays L.) to a 180 kb region on chromosome 2. Theor Appl Genet 125, 1223–1235 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-012-1908-5

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