Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jan;43(1):103-115.
doi: 10.1111/pce.13649. Epub 2019 Sep 9.

Independent genetic control of drought resistance, recovery, and growth of Eucalyptus globulus seedlings

Hans Ammitzboll  1 , René E Vaillancourt  1 , Brad M Potts  1 , Peter A Harrison  1 , Tim Brodribb  2 , Frances C Sussmilch  2   3 , Jules S Freeman  1   4
Affiliations
Free article

Independent genetic control of drought resistance, recovery, and growth of Eucalyptus globulus seedlings

Hans Ammitzboll et al. Plant Cell Environ. 2020 Jan.
Free article

Abstract

Drought is a major stress impacting forest ecosystems worldwide. We utilized quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis to study the genetic basis of variation in (a) drought resistance and recovery and (b) candidate traits that may be associated with this variation in the forest tree Eucalyptus globulus. QTL analysis was performed using a large outcrossed F2 mapping population from which 300 trees were phenotyped based on the mean performance of their open-pollinated F3 progeny. Progenies were grown in a glasshouse in a randomized complete block design. A subset of seedlings was subjected to a drought treatment after which they were rewatered and scored for damage and growth postdrought. Nondroughted seedlings were assessed for growth traits as well as lignotuber size and resprouting following severe damage to the main stem. QTL were detected for most traits. Importantly, independent QTL were detected for (a) drought damage and plant size, (b) drought damage and growth recovery, and (c) lignotuber size and resprouting capacity. Such independence argues that trade-offs are unlikely to be a major limitation to the response to selection and at the early life history stage studied; there are opportunities to improve resilience to drought without adverse effects on productivity.

Keywords: QTL; damage; drought; forest tree; growth; lignotuber; recovery; resistance; resprouting; trade-offs.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Adams, H. D., Zeppel, M. J., Anderegg, W. R., Hartmann, H., Landhäusser, S. M., Tissue, D. T., … Allen, C. D. (2017). A multi-species synthesis of physiological mechanisms in drought-induced tree mortality. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1, 1285-1291. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0248-x
    1. Agrawal, A. A., Conner, J. K., & Stinchcombe, J. R. (2004). Evolution of plant resistance and tolerance to frost damage. Ecology Letters, 7, 1199-1208. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00680.x
    1. Ammitzboll, H., Vaillancourt, R., Potts, B., Singarasa, S., Mani, R., & Freeman, J. (2018). QTL for intumescence severity in Eucalyptus globulus and validation of QTL detection based on phenotyping using open-pollinated families of a mapping population. Plant Disease, 102, 1566-1573. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-01-18-0003-RE
    1. Bartholomé, J., Mabiala, A., Savelli, B., Bert, D., Brendel, O., Plomion, C., & Gion, J. M. (2015). Genetic architecture of carbon isotope composition and growth in Eucalyptus across multiple environments. New Phytologist, 206, 1437-1449. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13301
    1. Bennett, A. C., McDowell, N. G., Allen, C. D., & Anderson-Teixeira, K. J. (2015). Larger trees suffer most during drought in forests worldwide. Nature Plants, 1, 15139. https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2015.139

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources