Genome-Wide Association Study With Growth-Related Traits and Secondary Metabolite Contents in Red- and White-Heart Chinese Fir

Abstract

Chinese fir [Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook] is an important evergreen coniferous tree species that is widely distributed in many southern provinces of China and has important economic value. The Chinese fir accounts for 1/4 and 1/3 of the total artificial forest area and stock volume, respectively. Red-heart Chinese fir is popular in the market because of its high density and red heartwood. The long-growth cycle hindered the breeding process of Chinese fir, while molecular marker-assisted breeding could accelerate it. However, Chinese fir, a perennial conifer species, has a large genome, which has not yet been published. In this study, the growth-related traits and secondary metabolite contents of red- and white-heart Chinese fir were measured and found to be different between them. There are extremely significant differences among growth-related traits (p < 0.001), but secondary metabolite contents have different correlations due to differences in chemical structure. Moreover, genotype effect analysis of the substantially correlated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) revealed that most of the loci related to each growth-related traits were different from each other, indicating a type specificity of the genes regulated different growth-related traits. Furthermore, among the loci related to secondary metabolite contents, nine loci associated with multiple metabolite phenotypes such as Marker21022_4, Marker21022_172, Marker24559_31, Marker27425_37, Marker20748_85, Marker18841_115, Marker18841_198, Marker65846_146, and Marker21486_163, suggesting the presence of pleiotropic genes. This study identified the potential SNP markers associated with secondary metabolites in Chinese fir, thus setting the basis for molecular marker-assisted selection.

Genome-Wide Association Studies Using 3VmrMLM Model Provide New Insights into Branched-Chain Amino Acid Contents in Rice Grains

“…With the advances in technology and the low cost of metabolomics assays, tremendous progress has been made using the metabolite-based genome-wide association study (mGWAS) approach, which has been widely applied in the elucidation of the genetic and biochemical bases of the metabolite of interest [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Using the mGWAS strategy, several loci controlling the content alteration of primary and secondary metabolites were identified in plants [ 26 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. As a primary metabolite, the main-effect QTNs/QTLs and candidate genes associated with the BCAA contents in rice were identified in previous studies [ 31 , 32 ].…”

Bond Quality and Durability of Cross-Laminated Flattened Bamboo and Timber (CLBT)

“…Chinese fir is an important fast-growing timber species in southern China. In 2021, the largest artificial forest area and harvest of all timber species in China, was for Chinese fir [12]. To date, Chinese fir has only been widely used in furniture and decoration due to its general strength and small diameter [13].…”