The bcw1 mutant displayed glossy stems and sheaths.
The cuticular waxes of bcw1 and wild type ZJU3 were observed throughout the whole growth period. No significant differences were detected at seedling stage (Additional file 1: Figure S1), but the mutant phenotype would be gradually appeared after tilling stage. Comparing the phenotype characteristics between the ZJU3 and bcw1, the results showed that the stems and sheaths of wild type were covered with a layer of white powder, which made the stem and leaf sheath surface glaucous, while the stem and sheath surface of mutant were glossy (Fig. 1a-c). In addition, epicuticular wax crystals of the plants are spherical droplets, which prevent water from staying on the surface of plant epidermis and avert the deposition of dust, pollutants and pathogen spores [32]. Therefore, water was sprayed onto the surface of bcw1 and ZJU3, A series of water droplets that formed and attached on the stem and sheath surface of mutants were observed, but no water droplets or water residue formed on the surface of ZJU3 (Fig. 1d, e), which confirmed that the cuticular waxes were defective in bcw1.
Genetic analysis of wax-deficient mutant bcw1
To analysis the inheritance behavior of bcw1, a genetic analysis was conducted on F1 plants and F2 populations, which developed from the crosses between bcw1 and Morex, and bcw1 and X188. All F1 hybrid plants exhibited glaucous surfaces and all glaucous and glossy plants in F2 segregating population were counted, respectively (Table 1). The χ2 test results showed that the genetic separation ratio of the two populations was in accordance with the Mendelian segregation of 3:1(χ2 < χ20.05,1 = 3.84), indicating that the mutant trait was controlled by a single recessive nuclear locus.
Table 1
Statistical analysis of genetic populations
Crosses | F1 plants | F2 populations |
Glaucous plants | Glossy plants | Total plants | χ23:1 | χ20.05 |
bcw1 × Morex | Glaucous | 157 | 50 | 207 | 0.23 | 3.84 |
bcw1 × X188 | Glaucous | 179 | 56 | 235 | 0.28 | 3.84 |
Defective wax crystals on stem and sheath surfaces of bcw1
To confirm whether epicuticular wax crystals of bcw1 were affected, SEM observations were conducted on the stem, sheath and leaf epidermis of wild type and mutant plants. Results revealed that the epicuticular wax structures covering the stem and sheath surfaces of the bcw1 were different from the wild type (Fig. 2). The stem and sheath surfaces of ZJU3 were covered with a dense waxy layer, which exhibited tubule-shaped, overlapping and interlacing (Fig. 2a, b), but only little wax crystals were deposited on bcw1 tissue surface (Fig. 2d, e). However, there were no obvious differences detected in the platelet-shaped waxy crystals distributed on the leaf surface between bcw1 and ZJU3 (Fig. 2c, f).
Altered cuticles of stems and sheaths in bcw1
The reticular cutin is filled with cuticular wax and forms a dense cuticle that protects plants from external stress [4]. During this process, abnormal deposition of cuticular wax may cause aberrant cuticle formations in some tissues. Therefore, TEM observations were conducted on stem, sheath and leaf cuticles of bcw1 and wild type. Similar to the SEM observation results, cuticles outside the epidermal cells of bcw1 stems and leaf sheaths were thinner, looser and irregular compared to the wild type (Fig. 3a, b, d, e), while the leaf cuticles of bcw1 were normal (Fig. 3c, f).
Decreased total cuticular waxes of bcw1 stem and sheath surfaces.
Based on the SEM and TEM observations and due to the abnormal epicuticular wax structures and cuticles of bcw1, the total wax contents were measured. The result indicated that the total wax contents of bcw1 stems and leaf sheaths were significantly lower than ZJU3 (Fig. 4), Although the epicuticular waxes from leaves of bcw1 were slightly changed, there was no significant difference were detected compared to ZJU3, which was consistent with the results of SEM and TEM observation.
Altered water loss rate of detached stems and sheaths.
In order to evaluate the drought resistance of bcw1, water loss rate was measured. Results showed that the values of detached sheaths and stems of bcw1 were higher than ZJU3 in vitro (Fig. 5b, c). Moreover, the water loss rate of bcw1 sheaths and stems increased extremely compared to ZJU3 after 3.5 hours in vitro time, and the difference became increasingly significant at subsequent in vitro time (Fig. 5). In addition, although the water loss rate of detached leaves of bcw1 were slightly higher than ZJU3, no significant differences were detected at any time points (Fig. 5a).These results were in agreement with the distribution of epidermis waxes of bcw1 and ZJU3, which indicated that the absence of bcw1 epidermis wax resulted in faster in vivo water loss, reducing water-holding capacity and increasing sensitivity to drought.
SLAF tag development and high-quality SNP screening
According to the SLAF library construction and high-throughput sequencing, a total of 154,410,911 valid reads were obtained, of which the guanine-cytosine (GC) content comprised 44.57%, and the Q30 value was more than 90%. In addition, the similarity between samples and reference genomes was above 97%, indicating that the samples were not contaminated and could be subsequently compared and detected (Additional file 2: Table S1). Moreover, 327,186 SLAF tags were developed and mapped to the whole assembly genome of barley (Additional file 3: Table S2; Additional file 4: Figure S2). Based on the SLAF -tags in four samples, 1,290,839 SNPs were developed. In order to ensure the accuracy, SNPs that did not conform to population genetic characteristics and whose reads were less than 4 were exluded. A total of 48,110 high-quality SNP markers were obtained (Additional file 5: Table S3).
Association regions of wax-related gene in barley
All high-quality SNP markers were used for association analysis, and the results showed that intervals calculated by the SNP-index algorithm were located on chromosome 2 (Additional file 6: Figure S3). According to the theoretical segregation ratio of the F2 population and the ΔSNP-index threshold value, 9 discontinuous regions between 431,198,045 bp and 509,725,587 bp were obtained, which may be candidate regions of the wax-related gene BCW1. The total length of the 9 intervals was 15.10 Mb and 301 genes were predicted in the region (Table 2). By comparing the physical location of Cer-cqu gene cluster previously reported on chromosome 2 [15, 16], BCW1 was found to be a novel wax-related gene in barley.
Table 2
Association regions detected using the ΔSNP-index method
Association analysis | Chr. | Start | End | Size(Mb) | Gene Number |
ΔSNP-index | 2H | 431,198,045 | 431,399,953 | 0.20 | 2 |
2H | 432,644,702 | 434,325,458 | 1.68 | 26 |
2H | 481,972,512 | 493,301,085 | 11.33 | 206 |
2H | 493,926,763 | 493,964,804 | 0.04 | 6 |
2H | 501,875,587 | 501,949,702 | 0.07 | 1 |
2H | 502,990,223 | 503,071,606 | 0.08 | 2 |
2H | 505,971,530 | 506,326,788 | 0.36 | 6 |
2H | 506,565,656 | 507,427,086 | 0.86 | 37 |
2H | 509,245,316 | 509,725,587 | 0.48 | 15 |