Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) is one of the most economically important perennial, cool-season forage species grown and pastured worldwide. High-density genetic linkage mapping is a valuable and effective method for exploring complex quantitative traits. In this study, we developed 447,177 markers based on SLAF-seq and used them to perform a comparative genomics analysis. Perennial ryegrass sequences were the most similar (5.02%) to orchardgrass sequences. A high-density linkage map of orchardgrass was constructed using 2,467 SLAF markers and 43 SSRs, which were distributed on seven linkage groups spanning 715.77 cM. The average distance between adjacent markers was 0.37 cM. Based on phenotyping in four environments, 11 potentially significant quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for two target traits–heading date (HD) and flowering time (FT)–were identified and positioned on linkage groups LG1, LG3, and LG5. Significant QTLs explained 8.20–27.00% of the total phenotypic variation, with the LOD ranging from 3.85–12.21. Marker167780 and Marker139469 were associated with FT and HD at the same location (Ya’an) over two different years. The utility of SLAF markers for rapid generation of genetic maps and QTL analysis has been demonstrated for heading date and flowering time in a global forage grass.

Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) is a long-lived, cool-season forage grass that is commonly used for hay production. Despite its economic importance, orchardgrass genome remains relatively unexplored. In this study, we used Illumina RNA sequencing to identify gene-associated molecular markers, including simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), as well as heat stress-induced differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in two orchardgrass genotypes, 'Baoxing' (heat resistant) and '01998' (heat susceptible). Approximately 163 million high-quality trimmed reads were generated from 207 million raw reads using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. A total of 126,846 unigenes were obtained after de novo assembly of the trimmed reads, and 40,078 unigenes were identified as coding sequences (CDSs). Based on the assembled unigenes, 669,300 high-quality SNPs, including 416,099 transitions and 257,736 transversions, were contained in 75,875 unigenes. In addition, a total of 8475 microsatellites were detected in 7764 unigenes. When placed under heat stress, the total number of DEGs in 'Baoxing' (3527) was higher than in '01998' (2649), indicating that in comparison with heat-susceptible '01998', heat-resistant 'Baoxing' seems to have more unigenes that respond to heat stress. The high-throughput transcriptome sequencing of orchardgrass under heat stress provides useful information for gene identification and for the development of SNP and SSR molecular markers. The comparison of DEGs under different periods of heat stress allowed us to identify a wealth of candidate DEGs that can be further analysed in order to determine the genetic mechanisms underlying heat tolerance in orchardgrass.

Abstract:The genus Dactylis, an important forage crop, has a wide geographical distribution in temperate regions. While this genus is thought to include a single species, Dactylis glomerata, this species encompasses many subspecies whose relationships have not been fully characterized. In this study, the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships of nine representative Dactylis subspecies were examined using SSR and IT-ISJ markers. In total, 21 pairs of SSR primers and 15 pairs of IT-ISJ primers were used to amplify 295 polymorphic bands with polymorphic rates of 100%. The average polymorphic information contents (PICs) of SSR and IT-ISJ markers were 0.909 and 0.780, respectively. The combined data of the two markers indicated a high level of genetic diversity among the nine D. glomerata subspecies, with a Nei's gene diversity index value of 0.283 and Shannon's diversity of 0.448. Preliminarily phylogenetic analysis results revealed that the 20 accessions could be divided into three groups (A, B, C). Furthermore, they could be divided into five clusters, which is similar to the structure analysis with K = 5. Phylogenetic placement in these three groups may be related to the distribution ranges and the climate types of the subspecies in each group. Group A contained eight accessions of four subspecies, originating from the west Mediterranean, while Group B contained seven accessions of three subspecies, originating from the east Mediterranean.