Allelic variation at a single gene increases food value in a drought-tolerant staple cereal

E K Gilding; Celine H Frere; A Cruickshank; A K Rada; P J Prentis; A M Mudge; E S Mace; D R Jordan; I D Godwin

doi:10.1038/ncomms2450

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Allelic variation at a single gene increases food value in a drought-tolerant staple cereal

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Allelic variation at a single gene increases food value in a drought-tolerant staple cereal

E K Gilding, Celine H Frere, A Cruickshank, A K Rada, P J Prentis, A M Mudge, E S Mace, D R Jordan and I D Godwin

Nature Communications, Vol.4, pp.1-6

2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2450

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Abstract

biological sciences

plant sciences

The production of adequate agricultural outputs to support the growing human population places great demands on agriculture, especially in light of ever-greater restrictions on input resources. Sorghum is a drought-adapted cereal capable of reliable production where other cereals fail, and thus represents a good candidate to address food security as agricultural inputs of water and arable land grow scarce. A long-standing issue with sorghum grain is that it has an inherently lower digestibility. Here we show that a low-frequency allele type in the starch metabolic gene, pullulanase, is associated with increased digestibility, regardless of genotypic background. We also provide evidence that the beneficial allele type is not associated with deleterious pleiotropic effects in the modern field environment. We argue that increasing the digestibility of an adapted crop is a viable way forward towards addressing food security while maximizing water and land-use efficiency.

Details

Title: Allelic variation at a single gene increases food value in a drought-tolerant staple cereal
Authors: E K Gilding (Corresponding Author) - The University of Queensland
Celine H Frere (Author) - University of Exeter
A Cruickshank (Author) - Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
A K Rada (Author) - University of Göttingen
P J Prentis (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
A M Mudge (Author) - The University of Queensland
E S Mace (Author) - Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
D R Jordan (Author) - QAAFI-AU
I D Godwin (Author) - The University of Queensland
Publication details: Nature Communications, Vol.4, pp.1-6
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Date published: 2013
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2450
ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
Copyright note: Copyright © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy ofthis license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Organisation Unit: School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99448616402621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Plant Sciences

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