Refining bulk segregant analyses: ontology-mediated discovery of flowering time genes in Brassica oleracea.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Bulk segregant analysis (BSA) can help identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs), but this may result in substantial bycatch of functionally irrelevant genes.

Results

Here we develop a Gene Ontology-mediated approach to zoom in on specific genes located inside QTLs identified by BSA as implicated in a continuous trait. We apply this to a novel experimental system: flowering time in the giant woody Jersey kale, which we phenotyped in four bulks of flowering onset. Our inferred QTLs yielded tens of thousands of candidate genes. We reduced this by two orders of magnitude by focusing on genes annotated with terms contained within relevant subgraphs of the Gene Ontology. A pathway enrichment test then led to the circadian rhythm pathway. The genes that enriched this path

SUBMITTER: Vos RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9252076 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature