Abstract
Substantial morphological variation in land plants remains inaccessible to genetic analysis because current models lack variation in important ecological and agronomic traits. The genus Gilia was historically a model for biosystematics studies and includes variation in morphological traits that are poorly understood at the genetic level. We assembled a chromosome-scale reference genome of G. yorkii and used it to investigate genome evolution in the Polemoniaceae. We performed QTL (quantitative trait loci) mapping in a G. yorkiixG. capitata interspecific population for traits related to inflorescence architecture and flower color. The genome assembly spans 2.75 Gb of the estimated 2.80-Gb genome, with 96.7% of the sequence contained in the nine largest chromosome-scale scaffolds matching the haploid chromosome number. Gilia yorkii experienced at least one round of whole-genome duplication shared with other Polemoniaceae after the eudicot paleohexaploidization event. We identified QTL linked to variation in inflorescence architecture and petal color, including a candidate for the major flower color QTL—a tandem duplication of flavanol 3́,5́-hydroxylase. Our results demonstrate the utility of Gilia as a forward genetic model for dissecting the evolution of development in plants including the causal loci underlying inflorescence architecture transitions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | evac017 |
Journal | Genome biology and evolution |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1 2022 |
Keywords
- Gilia
- QTL mapping
- evolution of development
- genome assembly
- inflorescence architecture
- whole-genome duplication
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine