TY - JOUR
T1 - Characterizing variation in mycorrhiza effect among diverse plant varieties
AU - Sawers, Ruairidh J.H.
AU - Gebreselassie, Mesfin N.
AU - Janos, David P.
AU - Paszkowski, Uta
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Tom Juenger (University of Texas), Jerome Goudet (University of Lausanne), and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments during preparation of this manuscript, Shawn Kaeppler (University of Wisconsin) for providing maize seed, and Blaise Tissot (University of Lausanne) for help with plant growth. R.S. thanks César Sawers for additional assistance. This work was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation grant PP00A–110874 to R.S. and U.P. and a European COST action 870 grant to M. G.
PY - 2010/3
Y1 - 2010/3
N2 - Exploitation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi may be an important approach for development of reduced-input agriculture. We discuss the use of linear models to analyze variation in mycorrhiza response among diverse plant varieties in order to assess the value of mycorrhizas. Our approach allows elimination of variation linked to differences in plant performance in the absence of mycorrhizas and the selection of plant lines that might harbor genetic variation of use to improve the mycorrhizal symbiosis in agriculture. We illustrate our approach by applying it to previously published and to novel data. We suggest that in dealing with a relative trait such as mycorrhiza effect, the choice of measure used to quantify the trait greatly affects interpretation. In the plant populations under consideration, we find evidence for a greater potential to increase mycorrhiza benefit than previously suggested.
AB - Exploitation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi may be an important approach for development of reduced-input agriculture. We discuss the use of linear models to analyze variation in mycorrhiza response among diverse plant varieties in order to assess the value of mycorrhizas. Our approach allows elimination of variation linked to differences in plant performance in the absence of mycorrhizas and the selection of plant lines that might harbor genetic variation of use to improve the mycorrhizal symbiosis in agriculture. We illustrate our approach by applying it to previously published and to novel data. We suggest that in dealing with a relative trait such as mycorrhiza effect, the choice of measure used to quantify the trait greatly affects interpretation. In the plant populations under consideration, we find evidence for a greater potential to increase mycorrhiza benefit than previously suggested.
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U2 - 10.1007/s00122-009-1231-y
DO - 10.1007/s00122-009-1231-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 20012933
AN - SCOPUS:77950022785
SN - 0040-5752
VL - 120
SP - 1029
EP - 1039
JO - Theoretical and Applied Genetics
JF - Theoretical and Applied Genetics
IS - 5
ER -