Genome-wide association study suggests an independent genetic basis of zinc and cadmium concentrations in fresh sweet corn kernels

Abstract

Despite being one of the most consumed vegetables in the United States, the elemental profile of sweet corn (Zea mays L.) is limited in its dietary contributions. To address this through genetic improvement, a genome-wide association study was conducted for the concentrations of 15 elements in fresh kernels of a sweet corn association panel. In concordance with mapping results from mature maize kernels, we detected a probable pleiotropic association of zinc and iron concentrations with nicotianamine synthase5 (nas5), which purportedly encodes an enzyme involved in synthesis of the metal chelator nicotianamine. Additionally, a pervasive association signal was identified for cadmium concentration within a recombination suppressed region on chromosome 2. The likely causal gene underlying this signal was heavy metal ATPase3 (hma3), whose counterpart in rice, OsHMA3, mediates vacuolar sequestration of cadmium and zinc in roots, whereby regulating zinc homeostasis and cadmium accumulation in grains. In our association panel, hma3 associated with cadmium but not zinc accumulation in fresh kernels. This finding implies that selection for low cadmium will not affect zinc levels in fresh kernels. Although less resolved association signals were detected for boron, nickel, and calcium, all 15 elements were shown to have moderate predictive abilities via whole-genome prediction. Collectively, these results help enhance our genomics-assisted breeding efforts centered on improving the elemental profile of fresh sweet corn kernels.

Effect of Physical Activity on Homeostasis in Professional Basketball Players According to Gender Differences

“…8 Some scientists who work upon the issues of physical fitness of athletes agree that the system of long-term training of athletes to maintain and improve health requires the use of technologies for diagnostics and treatment of mental state of the body to achieve the best form and movements. 3 Timely diagnostics and correction of health disorders is especially important in the preparation of sports reserves, in which sports activities are formed in childhood and adolescence, the level of which, however, depends on the future expectations of the athlete, as well as on everything else and social development.…”

“…The basis for achieving sports results and their development are adaptation processes occurring in the body. 3 The cardiovascular system is an indicator of the adaptive potentials of the body, the level of its function can be considered an earlier indicator reflecting the balance of the body with the environment. Physical exercises affect all parts of the cardiovascular system: the morphology of the heart and systemic hemodynamics, the condition of the vascular layer.…”

Transcriptome‐wide association and prediction for carotenoids and tocochromanols in fresh sweet corn kernels

“…Genomic relationship matrices (GRMs) were calculated according to VanRaden's Method 1 in GAPIT (VanRaden, 2008; Lipka et al., 2012) using a set of 147,762 genotyping‐by‐sequencing SNPs from Baseggio et al. (2021) uplifted to B73 v4 (Jiao et al., 2017) with minor allele frequency >0.05. Transcriptomic relationship matrices (TRMs) were calculated for each reference genome by scaling the cross‐product of the centered and standardized expression‐BLUE matrix by the number of transcripts (VanRaden, 2008; Morota & Gianola, 2014).…”

“…Kinship matrices were calculated with SNPs having a minor allele frequency >0.05 obtained from the 10,773 SNP dataset from Baseggio et al. (2021) according to VanRaden's Method 1 (VanRaden, 2008) implemented in GAPIT v3 (Lipka et al., 2012). The TWAS was implemented using the optimal model for each trait with the GWAS function in the rrBLUP R package (Endelman, 2011).…”

Fresh/High-Zinc Maize: A Promising Solution for Alleviating Zinc Deficiency through Significant Micronutrient Accumulation

“…It is normally consumed boiled or roasted [21,22], and it is very popular in Latin America, South Asia, China, and several African countries. Sweetcorn, a variant of fresh maize, is the third large vegetable consumed in the USA, and although it is not a major contributor to the American diet, it has recently been the subject of studies toward the development of enhanced mineral sweetcorn [16,23]. Consumers appreciate fresh maize because of its delicate flavor and sweet fragrance.…”