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. 2021 Nov 27;11(12):1780.
doi: 10.3390/biom11121780.

Quantitative Trait Locus Mapping Combined with RNA Sequencing Reveals the Molecular Basis of Seed Germination in Oilseed Rape

Kunjiang Yu  1 , Yuqi He  1 , Yuanhong Li  1 , Zhenhua Li  1 , Jiefu Zhang  2 , Xiaodong Wang  2 , Entang Tian  1
Affiliations

Quantitative Trait Locus Mapping Combined with RNA Sequencing Reveals the Molecular Basis of Seed Germination in Oilseed Rape

Kunjiang Yu et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Rapid and uniform seed germination improves mechanized oilseed rape production in modern agricultural cultivation practices. However, the molecular basis of seed germination is still unclear in Brassica napus. A population of recombined inbred lines of B. napus from a cross between the lower germination rate variety 'APL01' and the higher germination rate variety 'Holly' was used to study the genetics of seed germination using quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping. A total of five QTLs for germination energy (GE) and six QTLs for germination percentage (GP) were detected across three seed lots, respectively. In addition, six epistatic interactions between the QTLs for GE and nine epistatic interactions between the QTLs for GP were detected. qGE.C3 for GE and qGP.C3 for GP were co-mapped to the 28.5-30.5 cM interval on C3, which was considered to be a novel major QTL regulating seed germination. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the differences in sugar, protein, lipid, amino acid, and DNA metabolism and the TCA cycle, electron transfer, and signal transduction potentially determined the higher germination rate of 'Holly' seeds. These results contribute to our knowledge about the molecular basis of seed germination in rapeseed.

Keywords: Brassica napus; molecular basis; quantitative trait locus; seed germination; transcriptome.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The frequency distribution of germination energy and germination percentage in the AH population. ‘A‘ represents ‘APL01’. ‘H‘ refers to ‘Holly’. 15SL, 16SL, and 17SL refer to the seed lot harvested in 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The number of differentially expressed genes in different comparison groups among the four treatment samples of ‘APL01’ and ‘Holly’. (A) Co-upregulated genes in the A1 > A0 and H1 > H0 groups ((A1 > A0) & (H1 > H0)). (B) Co-upregulated genes in the H0 > A0, A1 > A0 and H1 > H0 groups. ((H0 > A0) & (A1 > A0) & (H1 > H0)). A0 represents the pre-germination seed of ‘APL01’, while A1 represents the germinated seed of ‘APL01’. H0 represents the pre-germination seed of ‘Holly’, while H1 represents the germinated seed of ‘Holly’. A1 > A0 refers the genes up-regulated in A1 compared with A0. H1 > H0 refers to the genes up-regulated in H1 compared with H0. H0 > A0 refers to the genes up-regulated in H0 compared with A0.
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