MicroRNA polymorphisms conferring enhanced drought tolerance in a plant

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10337073-B2
Application number	US-201715477147-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 3, 2017
Priority date	Jun 14, 2010
Publication date	Jul 2, 2019
Grant date	Jul 2, 2019

Abstract

Methods of identifying a single nucleotide polymorphism associated with a plant trait and methods of identifying a plant having an improved trait. The plant trait is correlated with at least one single nucleotide polymorphism in a microRNA region of a plant genome. Isolated nucleic acids, transgenic plants, and methods of producing the same are also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing a maize plant using marker-assisted breeding, wherein said maize plant exhibits increased grain yield at standard moisture percentage, the method comprising the steps of:
(a) crossing a first maize plant or a progeny thereof with a second maize plant, wherein said first maize plant or progeny thereof has been selected for said crossing based on the presence of
(a1) at least one polymorphism within a marker locus of its genome, wherein said marker locus is associated with increased grain yield at standard moisture percentage and wherein said marker locus is SEQ ID NO: 84 and
(a2) at least one single nucleotide polymorphism located at a nucleotide corresponding to a position selected from the group consisting of:
(i) position 444 of SEQ ID NO: 69, wherein the nucleotide is a C, and
(ii) position 500 of SEQ ID NO: 69, wherein the nucleotide is a C;

(b) producing a progeny plant population from the cross of (a);
(c) selecting a progeny plant from the progeny plant population of (b) based on genotyping the progeny plant's genomic DNA and selecting a progeny plant having the at least one polymorphism of (a1) and the at least one polymorphism of (a2) said marker locus; and
(d) producing a maize plant using marker-assisted breeding wherein said maize plant exhibits increased grain yield at standard moisture percentage.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one single nucleotide polymorphism of (a1) is located in a pre-miRNA portion of the microRNA region.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the pre-miRNA portion of the microRNA region comprises SEQ ID NO: 82.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the pre-miRNA portion of the microRNA region comprises SEQ ID NO: 83.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one single nucleotide polymorphism of (a1) is located in a mature miRNA portion of the microRNA region.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the mature miRNA portion of the microRNA region comprises SEQ ID NO: 82.

7. A method of selecting a maize plant having enhanced drought tolerance, the method comprising:
(a) isolating a nucleic acid from a maize plant cell;
(b) detecting in the nucleic acid of (a) the presence of
(a1) at least one single nucleotide polymorphism in a microRNA region comprising SEQ ID NO: 84 and (a2) at least one single nucleotide polymorphism located at a nucleotide corresponding to a position selected from the group consisting of:
(i) position 444 of SEQ ID NO: 69, wherein the nucleotide is a C, and
(ii) position 500 of SEQ ID NO: 69, wherein the nucleotide is a C, thereby identifying a maize plant having enhanced drought tolerance;

(c) crossing the maize plant of (b) with a maize plant not having the polymorphisms of (a1) and (a2); and
(d) growing progeny from (c) to produce a plant having the polymorphisms.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the at least one single nucleotide polymorphism of (a1) is located in a pre-miRNA portion of the microRNA region.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein pre-miRNA portion of the microRNA region comprises SEQ ID NO: 82.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein pre-miRNA portion of the microRNA region comprises SEQ ID NO: 83.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the at least one single nucleotide polymorphism of (a1) is located in a mature miRNA portion of the microRNA region.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the mature miRNA portion of the microRNA region comprises SEQ ID NO: 82.

Assignees

• Syngenta Participations Ag

Inventors

• Skalla Dale Wayne
• Clarke V Joseph Dallas
• Yu Ju-Kyung
• Wang Daolong
• Lu Jianwei

Classifications

• C12N15/8218

  Antisense, co-suppression, viral induced gene silencing [VIGS], post-transcriptional induced gene silencing [PTGS] · CPC title

• C12Q2600/13

  Plant traits · CPC title

• C12Q2600/156

  Polymorphic or mutational markers · CPC title

• C12Q2600/178

  miRNA, siRNA or ncRNA · CPC title

• A01H5/02

  Flowers · CPC title