Contributions of flowering time genes to sunflower domestication and improvement.

ABSTRACT: Determining the identity and distribution of molecular changes leading to the evolution of modern crop species provides major insights into the timing and nature of historical forces involved in rapid phenotypic evolution. In this study, we employed an integrated candidate gene strategy to identify loci involved in the evolution of flowering time during early domestication and modern improvement of the sunflower (Helianthus annuus). Sunflower homologs of many genes with known functions in flowering time were isolated and cataloged. Then, colocalization with previously mapped quantitative trait loci (QTLs), expression, or protein sequence differences between wild and domesticated sunflower, and molecular evolutionary signatures of selective sweeps were applied as step-wise criteria for narr

SUBMITTER: Blackman BK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3018319 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature