Genome-wide association study on all metabolites from 175 Japanese rice cultivars

October 28, 2014

Certain flavonoids are present in Hatsunishiki but not in Koshihikari

RIKEN CSRS and National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) analyzed 342 primary and secondary metabolites from the leaves of 175 Japanese rice cultivars using metabolome analysis technologies, and successfully elucidated the structures of 91 of those metabolites. Rice leaves contain many secondary metabolites such as health-promoting flavonoids; this joint research demonstrates that the amount of secondary metabolites varies greatly among cultivars. The metabolomic data was also combined with NIAS-supplied single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data in a genome-wide association study (GWAS), revealing 143 SNPs associated with 89 secondary metabolites that differed in the amounts among cultivars.

Combining SNP data with rice genome information could be promising for the development of nonrecombinant technologies for improved rice breeds enriched with beneficial metabolites or the breeding of rice plants with enhanced health functionality in a short period of time.

Original article

The Plant Journal doi: 10.1111/tpj.12681

F. Matsuda, Ryo. Nakabayashi, Z. Yang, Y. Okazaki, J. Yonemaru, K. Ebana, M. Yano, K. Saito,

"Metabolome-genome-wide association study (mGWAS) dissects genetic architecture for generating natural variation in rice secondary metabolism".

Contact

Kazuki Saito: Group Director

Fumio Matsuda: Visiting Scientist

Yozo Okazaki: Research Scientist

Metabolomics Research Group