Title:

Developing Chenopodium ficifolium as a diploid model system relevant to the genetic characterization and improvement of allotetraploid C. quinoa (quinoa)

Chenopodium quinoa, is an allotetraploid (2n=4x=36) species of genome composition AABB, and thus has two distinct diploid ancestors. As has been done for many polyploid crop species, we are developing diploid model systems for genetic studies relevant to quinoa gene identification and marker-assisted breeding. Here we report on our foundational genetic studies in the BB diploid, Chenopodium ficifolium (2n=2x=18). C. ficifolium accessions P and QC were collected from weedy locations in Northern New England, and were reciprocally crossed to generate F1 hybrids, which upon molecular confirmation of hybridity, were selfed to produce F2 generation populations. Phenotypic data were collected and F2 generation segregation was evident for several agronomically relevant traits, including flowering time, plant height, internode length, number of branches, branch angle, and leaf chlorophyll content. The FLOWERING LOCUS T-LIKE (FTL) marker locus was used for genotyping the F1 and the F2 population, and both FTL homologs, FTL-1 and FTL-2, were characterized molecularly by sequencing the PCR amplicons generated from CrFT345For and CrFT501Rev primers described by Storchova et al (2015). Marker-trait associations were detected between the FTL marker and the flowering time of F2 individuals. The amplicons of trait-associated alleles were sequenced and compared to the quinoa reference genome (Jarvis et al., 2017) to determine the molecular basis for the observed gel mobility polymorphisms, as will be described. The F2 population was categorized into three genotypes of FTL-1 locus, A1A1, A1A2, and A2A2 which were found associated with the traits flowering time, plant height and the number of branches.

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