First published online October 3, 2002; 10.1104/pp.006536
Plant Physiol, October 2002, Vol. 130, pp. 951-963
Genetic Architecture of NaCl Tolerance in
Arabidopsis1
Víctor
Quesada,2
Santiago
García-Martínez,
Pedro
Piqueras,
María Rosa
Ponce, and
José Luis
Micol*
División de Genética and Instituto de
Bioingeniería, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Campus de
Elche, 03202 Elche, Alicante, Spain
The little success of breeding approaches toward the
improvement of salt tolerance in crop species is thought to be
attributable to the quantitative nature of most, if not all the
processes implicated. Hence, the identification of some of the
quantitative trait loci (QTL) that contribute to natural variation in
salt tolerance should be instrumental in eventually manipulating the
perception of salinity and the corresponding responses. A good choice
to reach this goal is the plant model system Arabidopsis, whose
complete genome sequence is now available. Aiming to analyze natural
variability in salt tolerance, we have compared the ability of 102 wild-type races (named ecotypes or accessions) of Arabidopsis to
germinate on 250 mM NaCl, finding a wide range of variation
among them. Accessions displaying extremely different responses to NaCl
were intercrossed, and the phenotypes found in their F2
progenies suggested that natural variation in NaCl tolerance during
germination was under polygenic controls. Genetic distances calculated
on the basis of variations in repeat number at 22 microsatellites, were
analyzed in a group of either extremely salt-tolerant or extremely
salt-sensitive accessions. We found that most but not all accessions
with similar responses to NaCl are phylogenetically related. NaCl
tolerance was also studied in 100 recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross between the Columbia-4 and Landsberg erecta
accessions. We detected 11 QTL harboring naturally occurring alleles
that contribute to natural variation in NaCl tolerance in Arabidopsis, six at the germination and five at the vegetative growth stages, respectively. At least five of these QTL are likely to represent loci
not yet described by their relationship with salt stress.
1
This research was supported by the Ministerio de
Ciencia y Tecnología of Spain (grant no. BIO2000-1082). V.Q.
and P.P. were fellows of the Conselleria de Cultura, Educació i
Ciència of the Generalitat Valenciana.
2
Present address: John Innes Centre, Norwich Research
Park, Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK.
*
Corresponding author; e-mail jlmicol{at}umh.es; fax
34-96-665-85-11.
© 2002 American Society of Plant Physiologists
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