Candidate genes associated with increased concentration of fermentable sugars in alfalfa.

Citation

Solen Rocher, Josée Michaud, Annie Claessens, Marie-Noëlle Thivierge, Annick Bertrand. 2018. Candidate genes associated with increased concentration of fermentable sugars in alfalfa. North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference, Logan, Utah 4-6 June 2018.

Abstract

By comparing alfalfa populations contrasting in their soluble sugars and starch contents, our results confirmed the quantitative control of sugar and starch biosynthesis and accumulation in alfalfa. We observed extensive diurnal variation of candidate genes expression, sometimes linked with differences of expression level between phenotypically contrasted samples. Our study highlights the importance to distinguish genotypic effects from genotype x environment interactions. This work confirmed that stem concentration in soluble sugars and starch can be used as a selection criterion to improve alfalfa energy content, and revealed that molecular genetics approaches are promising to accelerate alfalfa breeding for that trait.