Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Assessing genetic potential in germplasm collections of crop plants by marker-trait association: a case study for potatoes with quantitative variation of resistance to late blight and maturity type

  • Published:
Molecular Breeding Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Genetic diversity of crop plants resulting from breeding and selection is preserved in gene banks. Utilization of such materials for further crop improvement depends on knowledge of agronomic performance and useful traits, which is usually obtained by phenotypic evaluation. Associations between DNA markers and agronomic characters in collections of crop plants would (i) allow assessment of the genetic potential of specific genotypes prior to phenotypic evaluation, (ii) identify superior trait alleles in germplasm collections, (iii) facilitate high resolution QTL mapping and (iv) validate candidate genes responsible for quantitative agronomic characters. The feasibility of association mapping was tested in a gene bank collection of 600 potato cultivars bred between 1850 and 1990 in different countries. The cultivars were genotyped with five DNA markers linked to previously mapped QTL for resistance to late blight and plant maturity. Specific DNA fragments were tested for association with these quantitative characters based on passport evaluation data. Highly significant association with QTL for resistance to late blight and plant maturity was detected with PCR markers specific for R1, a major gene for resistance to late blight, and anonymous PCR markers flanking the R1 locus at 0.2 Centimorgan genetic distance. The marker alleles associated with increased resistance and later plant maturity were traced to an introgression from the wild species S. demissum. These DNA markers are the first marker that are diagnostic for quantitative agronomic characters in a large collection of cultivars.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Angeli M., Klewsaat M., Vandrey M., Schüler K. 2000. Kulturkart-offelsortiment/ Collection of Potato Varieties. 52 pp., Wilde und kultivierte Kartoffelarten aus Mittel-und Südamerika/wild and cultivated potato species from Central and South America, 123 pp. Inventory for 2000, IPK-Genbank Auβenstelle Groβ Lüse-witz.

  • Ballvora A., Ercolano M. R., Weiβ J., Meksem K., Bormann C., Oberhagemann P., Salamini F., Gebhardt C. 2002. The R1 gene for potato resistance to late blight (Phytophthora infestans) be-longs to the leucine zipper/NBS/LRR class of plant resistance genes. The Plant Journal 30: 361–371.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins A., Milbourne D., Ramsay L., Meyer R., Chatot-Balandras C., Oberhagemann P., De Jong W., Gebhardt C., Bonnel E., Waugh R. 1999. QTL for field resistance to late blight in potato are strongly correlated with earliness and vigour. Mol Breeding 5: 387–398.

    Google Scholar 

  • Debener T., Salamini F., Gebhardt C. 1990. Phylogeny of wild and cultivated Solanum species based on nuclear restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). Theor Appl Genet 79: 360–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gebhardt C., Valkonen J. P. T. 2001. Organization of genes control-ling disease resistance in the potato genome. Annu Rev Phyto-pathol 39: 79–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanson W. D. 1959. The breakup of initial linkage blocks under se-lected mating systems. Genetics 44: 857–868.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamoun S. 2001. Nonhost resistance to Phytophthora: novel pros-pects for a classical problem. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 4: 295–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraft T., Hansen M., Nilsson N.-O. 2000. Linkage disequilibrium and fingerprinting in sugar beet. Theor. Appl. Genet. 101: 323–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lander E. S., Schork N. J. 1994. Genetic dissection of complex traits. Science 265: 2037–2048.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonards-Schippers C., Gieffers W., Salamini F., Gebhardt C. 1992. The R1 gene conferring race-specific resistance to 101. Phytophthora infestans in potato is located on potato chromo-some V. Mol. Gen. Genet. 233: 278–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonards-Schippers C., Gieffers W., Schäfer-Pregl R., Ritter E., Knapp S. J., Salamini F., Gebhardt C. 1994. Quantitative resis-tance to Phytophthora infestans in potato: a case study for QTL mapping in an allogamous plant species. Genetics 137: 67–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meksem K., Leister D., Peleman J., Zabeau M., Salamini F., Geb-hardt C. 1995. A high-resolution map of the vicinity of the R1 locus on chromosome V of potato based on RFLP and AFLP markers. Mol. Gen. Genet. 249: 74–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oberhagemann P., Chatot-Balandras C., Bonnel E., Schäfer-Pregl R., Wegener D., Palomino C., Salamini F., Gebhardt C. 1999. A genetic analysis of quantitative resistance to late blight in po-tato: Towards marker assisted selection. Mol. Breeding 5: 399–415.

    Google Scholar 

  • Risch N. J. 2000. Searching for genetic determinants in the new millennium. Nature 405: 847–856.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross H. 1986. Potato Breeding-Problems and Perspectives. J. Plant Breed. Suppl. 13.

  • Salamini F., Özkan H., Brandolini A., Schäfer-Pregl R., Martin W. 2002. Genetics and geography of wild cereal domestication in the near east. Nature Reviews Genetics 3: 429–441.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schafer A. J., Hawkins J. R. 1998. DNA variation and the future of human genetics. Nature Biotechnology 16: 33–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steineck O. 1956. Tageslänge und Knollenbildung bei Kultursorten der Kartoffel. Z. für Pflanzenzüchtung 36: 197–213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swiezynski K. M., Chrzanowska M., Domanski L., Zimnoch-Gu-zowska E. 2001. Comparison of resistance evaluation in potato variety assessment. Pot. Res. 44: 25–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swiezynski K. M., Haynes K. G., Hutten R. C. B., Sieczka M. T., Watts P., Zimnoch-Guzowska E. 1997. Pedigree of European and North-American potato varieties. Plant Breeding and Seed Science 41, Supplement no. 1.

  • Thornsburry J. M., Goodman M. M., Doebley J., Kresovich S., Nielsen D., Buckler IV E. S. 2001. Dwarf8 polymorphisms asso-ciate with variation in flowering time. Nature Genetics 28: 286–289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Visker M. H. P. W., Keizer L. C. P., Van Eck H. J., Jacobsen E., Colon L. T., Struik P. C. 2003. Can the QTL for late blight resistance on potato chromosome 5 be attributed to foliage maturity type? Theor. Appl. Genet. 106: 317–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xiong M. I., Guo S. W. 1997. Fine-scale mapping of quantitative trait loci using historical recombinations. Genetics 145: 1201–1218.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Carl von Linné Weg 10, 50829, Cologne, Germany(phone

    Christiane Gebhardt, Agim Ballvora, Birgit Walkemeier & Petra Oberhagemann

  2. IPK Gatersleben, Genbank Außenstelle Nord, 18190, Groß Lüsewitz, Germany

    Konrad Schüler

Authors
  1. Christiane Gebhardt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Agim Ballvora
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Birgit Walkemeier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Petra Oberhagemann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Konrad Schüler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christiane Gebhardt.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gebhardt, C., Ballvora, A., Walkemeier, B. et al. Assessing genetic potential in germplasm collections of crop plants by marker-trait association: a case study for potatoes with quantitative variation of resistance to late blight and maturity type. Molecular Breeding 13, 93–102 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:MOLB.0000012878.89855.df

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:MOLB.0000012878.89855.df

Search

Navigation