As a major food source potato delivers significant levels of minerals to the human diet. The aim of this study was to understand the control over the mineral concentrations found in tubers. The three-dimensional patterns of mineral distribution in tubers give clues to the processes leading to storage in the tuber. Within the tuber flesh, calcium and phosphorus content decreased towards the centre of the tuber (on FW basis). The elements iron, magnesium, zinc, manganese, sulphur and chlorine were higher at the stem end, while potassium was higher at the bud end. Remobilisation of minerals within the tuber was evident after six months of cold storage. Mineral variation was explored in potato germplasm. Three diverse germplasm collections, the Commonwealth Potato Collection, the Phureja and Tuberosum Core Collection and the Neotuberosum Population demonstrated wide variation for tuber mineral concentrations, an interaction with tuber yield and, on multivariate analysis, consistent parallels between some minerals suggesting unsuspected shared processes affecting their concentrations. The 12601ab1 x Stirling tetraploid mapping population was used to identify QTls for tuber mineral concentration using REML analysis to account for local field variation. Transgressive segregation for tuber mineral concentrations was detected. The genetic map for this population was extended using DArT markers and QTLs were identified on all 12 linkage groups for all minerals studied. Two bulk segregant analyses were performed to add precision to the QTL analysis. One approach identified candidate genes on the potato genome sequence and used nearby SSRs to seek association in the tetraploid mapping population. A second approach used the variation present in the highly diverse Neotuberosum Population to identify DArT markers which were associated with the tails of the distribution of minerals. Using the latter approach, single superscaffolds containing candidate loci and trait-associated DArT markers could be aligned with a small part of mapping population QTLs, providing additional resolution.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:576148 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Subramanian, Nithya |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28113/ |
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