Identification and characterization of a genomic region from sugarcane using QTL for Brix in sorghum

• Grant number: 17/18225-0
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal researcher: Anete Pereira de Souza
• Grantee: Luís Paulo dos Santos
• Home Institution: Centro de Biologia Molecular e Engenharia Genética (CBMEG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The sugarcane is a crop of high economic importance due to its derivatives of major economic value: the sugar and the ethanol. The climate of Brazil favored the country to become the largest producer of the culture in the world, in this way there is a great financial and scientific investment to have a better knowledge of the culture. The modern cultivars of sugarcane are interspecific hybrids (Saccharum officinarum x Saccharum spontaneum), resulting in a genome of high genetic complexity: aneuploidy and a high level of ploidy. In this context, the genetic and genomic understanding of the species are fundamental for the development and launch of new varieties, with agronomic characteristics that meet the current demands. However, the genetic and genomic bases that control these characteristics are of polygenic origin, making it difficult to identify them. Therefore, the present project intends to study a genomic region of sugarcane that contains genes with possible influence for the characteristic Brix. Exploring the high sinteny between sorghum and sugarcane, a region of a QTL (quantitative trait loci) for Brix mapped in sorghum was chosen as the target of the study. The BACs (bacterial artificial chromosomes) will be used to recover the corresponding region in the sugarcane genome and study its genomic and genetic organization. Thus, it is expected that these results of the genomic characterization of this region will serve as support in the assisted selection by molecular markers. (AU)