Plant Biotechnology
Molecular Biology and Genetics
Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol. 13 No. 4, Issue of July 15, 2010
© 2010 by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso -- Chile Received November 3, 2009 / Accepted April 27, 2010
DOI: 10.2225/vol13-issue4-fulltext-4
REVIEW ARTICLE

Mapping aluminum tolerance loci in cereals: A tool available for crop breeding

Claudio Inostroza-Blancheteau
Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias de Recursos Naturales,
Universidad de La Frontera,
Temuco, Chile

Braulio Soto
Centro de Genómica Nutricional Agro Acuícola
Unidad de Biotecnología de Plantas
Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias
Temuco, Chile

Cristian Ibáñez#
Instituto de Biología Vegetal y Biotecnología
Universidad de Talca
Talca, Chile

Pilar Ulloa
Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias de Recursos Naturales
Universidad de La Frontera
Temuco, Chile  

Felipe Aquea
Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Santiago, Chile

Patricio Arce-Johnson
Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Santiago, Chile

Marjorie Reyes-Díaz*
Center of Plant, Soil Interaction and Natural Resources Biotechnology
Scientific and Technological Bioresource Nucleus
Universidad de La Frontera
Temuco, Chile
E-mail: reyesm@ufro.cl

*Corresponding author

Present address: #Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile.

Financial support: Fondecyt Project Nº11080231, C. Inostroza-Blancheteau was supported by a PhD fellowship from CONICYT-Chile and F. Aquea is supported by a Postdoctoral Project “Programa Bicentenario de Ciencia y Tecnología CONICYT Banco Mundial” PSD74 2006 and the Millennium Nucleus for Plant Functional Genomics (P06-009-F).

Keywords: ALMT1, aluminum tolerance, cereals, marker-assisted selection, organic acid.

Abbreviations:

AFLP: Amplified fragment length polymorphism
ALMT1: Aluminum Activated Malate Transporter 1
Alt: Al tolerance
GGT: graphical genotypes
HvAACT1: Hordeum vulgare Aluminum Activated Citrate Transporter 1
MAS: marker-assisted selection
MATE: multidrug and toxic compound extrusion
MM: Molecular markers
NILs: near isogenic lines
QTL: quantitative trait loci
RAPDs: Random Amplified Polymorphic DNAs
RFLP: Restriction Fragment length polymorphisms
SNP: Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms
SSR: Simple Sequence Repeats

Abstract   Full Text

Aluminum (Al) toxicity is the main factor limiting crop productivity in acidic soils around the world. In cereals, this problem reduces crop yields by 30-40%. The use of DNA-based markers linked to phenotypic traits is an interesting alternative approach. Strategies such as molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS) in conjunction with bioinformatics-based tools such as graphical genotypes (GGT) have been important for confirming introgression of genes or genomic regions in cereals but also to reduce the time and cost of identifying them through genetic selection. These biotechnologies also make it possible to identify target genes or quantitative trait loci (QTL) that can be potentially used in similar crops to increase their productivity. This review presents the main advances in the genetic improvement of cereals for Al-tolerance.

Supported by UNESCO / MIRCEN network