Project title:

Powerful genetic resources for studying the genetic basis of complex traits in plants

Abstract:

The recent development of chromosome substitution lines through repression of recombination and haploid induction in Arabidopsis hybrids implies a major step forward in unravelling complex trait variation. The derived homozygous lines contain a combination of the intact chromosomes present in the founding parents. In Arabidopsis with five chromosomes, a complete chromosome substitution library consists of 2^5 = 32 lines. The distinguishing advantage of these genetically simple, completely balanced chromosome substitution libraries is that they offer a design in which all possible contrasting sets of genotypes can be assessed for any kind of genetic effect, like epistasis, GxE, and epigenetics.