Genome Center and Department of Plant Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Department of Plant Biology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
G3 (Bethesda). 2024 Nov 6;14(11). doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkae218.
The genetic control of many plant traits can be highly complex. Both allelic variation (sequence change) and dosage variation (copy number change) contribute to a plant's phenotype. While numerous studies have investigated the effect of allelic or dosage variation, very few have documented both within the same system, leaving their relative contribution to phenotypic effects unclear. The Populus genome is highly polymorphic, and poplars are fairly tolerant of gene dosage variation. Here, using a previously established Populus hybrid F1 population, we assessed and compared the effect of natural allelic variation and induced dosage variation on biomass, phenology, and leaf morphology traits. We identified QTLs for many of these traits, but our results indicate limited overlap between the QTLs associated with natural allelic variation and induced dosage variation. Additionally, the integration of data from both allelic and dosage variation identifies a larger set of QTLs that together explain a larger percentage of the phenotypic variance. Finally, our results suggest that the effect of the large indels might mask that of allelic QTLs. Our study helps clarify the relationship between allelic and dosage variation and their effects on quantitative traits.
许多植物性状的遗传控制可能非常复杂。等位基因变异（序列变化）和剂量变异（拷贝数变化）都对植物表型有贡献。虽然许多研究已经调查了等位基因或剂量变异的影响，但很少有研究在同一系统中记录两者，使得它们对表型效应的相对贡献不清楚。杨树基因组高度多态性，杨树对基因剂量变异相当耐受。在这里，我们使用先前建立的杨属杂种 F1 群体，评估和比较了自然等位基因变异和诱导剂量变异对生物量、物候和叶片形态特征的影响。我们确定了许多这些性状的 QTL，但我们的结果表明，与自然等位基因变异和诱导剂量变异相关的 QTL 之间的重叠有限。此外，整合来自等位基因和剂量变异的数据确定了更大的 QTL 集，这些 QTL 共同解释了更大比例的表型方差。最后，我们的结果表明，大片段缺失的影响可能掩盖了等位基因 QTL 的影响。我们的研究有助于阐明等位基因和剂量变异之间的关系及其对数量性状的影响。
