Work

Genetic variation underlying nitrogen-deficiency tolerance in Gossypium hirsutum during the seedling stage

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: As over-fertilization leads to environmental concerns, selecting high yield cotton cultivars with a high nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) has become crucially important. However, the genetic effects underlying NUE traits remain unclear. In this study, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed using 2.65 million high-quality single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) based on three NUE related traits at the seedling stage of 419 core accessions in four environments. Totals of 21 novel loci were detected, of which, the novel peak on D10 chromosome was consistently detected for multiple traits and selected to analyses. We further identified and validated a novel candidate gene GhERF4 by RNA-seq, RT-qPCR, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) and overexpression methods, and the results suggest that GhERF4 plays a negative role in the regulation of N-deficiency tolerance. The identified SNPs and candidate genes provide valuable information for breeding highly N-efficient varieties.

Source: Genomics

DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2025.111019