A Forward Genetics Strategy for High-Throughput Gene Identification via Precise Image-Based Phenotyping of an Indexed EMS Mutant Library.

ABSTRACT: Ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutants are widely used for genetic analysis; however, EMS-derived mutant populations are not amenable to traditional genome-wide association studies (GWAS) because the EMS mutations are present at extremely low frequencies. To address this challenge, this work develops the GeneHunter-Gene-Level Association (GH-GLA) pipeline using an EMS-generated population of wheat (Triticum aestivum) mutants and an image-based phenotyping platform. GH-GLA enables comprehensive exploration of phenotypic variation induced by genome-wide saturation mutagenesis. Using GH-GLA to quantify 83 traits in the wheat population reveals that variation in spikelet geometry is significantly associated with key agronomic traits, including thousand-kernel weight. Using this indexed wheat EMS

SUBMITTER: Wang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12713079 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature