Use of genotype‐environment interactions to elucidate the pattern of maize root plasticity to nitrogen deficiency

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.) root morphology exhibits a high degree of phenotypic plasticity to nitrogen (N) deficiency, but the underlying genetic architecture remains to be investigated. Using an advanced BC 4 F 3 population, we investigated the root growth plasticity under two contrasted N levels and identified the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with QTL-environment (Q Â E) interaction effects. Principal components analysis (PCA) on changesofroottraitstoNdeficiency(DLN-HN)showedthatroot length and biomass contributed for45.8%inthesamemagnitude and direction on the first PC, while root traits scattered highly on PC2 and PC3. Hierarchical cluster analysis on traits for DLN-HN further assigned the BC 4 F 3 lines into six groups, in which the special phenotypic responses to N deficiency was presented. These results revealed thecomplicated root plasticity of maizein response to N deficiency that can be caused by genotypeenvironment (G Â E) interactions. Furthermore, QTL mapping using a multi-environment analysis identified 35 QTLs for root traits. Nine of these QTLs exhibited significant Q Â E interaction effects. Taken together, our findings contribute to understanding the phenotypic and genotypic pattern of root plasticity to N deficiency, which will be useful for developing maize tolerance cultivars to N deficiency.Keywords: Genotype-environment interactions; nitrogen stress; quantitative trait locus; root morphology; root plasticity; Zea mays L. Citation: Li P, Zhuang Z, Cai H, Cheng S, Soomro AA, Liu Z, Gu R, Mi G, Yuan L, Chen F (2016) Use of genotype-environment interactions to elucidate the pattern of maize root plasticgqy to nitrogen deficiency.

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