Nucleotide diversity and linkage disequilibrium in 11 expressed resistance candidate genes in Lolium perenne

Background: Association analysis is an alternative way for QTL mapping in ryegrass. So far, knowledge on nucleotide diversity and linkage disequilibrium in ryegrass is lacking, which is essential for the efficiency of association analyses. Results: 11 expressed disease resistance candidate ( R) genes including 6 nucleotide binding site and leucine rich repeat (NBS-LRR) like genes and 5 non-NBS-LRR genes were analyzed for nucleotide diversity. For each of the genes about 1 kb genomic fragments were isolated from 20 heterozygous genotypes in ryegrass. The number of haplotypes per gene ranged from 9 to 27. On average, one single nucleotide polymorphism ( SNP) was present per 33 bp between two randomly sampled sequences for the 11 genes. NBS-LRR like gene fragments showed a high degree of nucleotide diversity, with one SNP every 22 bp between two randomly sampled sequences. NBS-LRR like gene fragments showed very high non-synonymous mutation rates, leading to altered amino acid sequences. Particularly LRR regions showed very high diversity with on average one SNP every 10 bp between two sequences. In contrast, non-NBS-LRR resistance candidate genes showed a lower degree of nucleotide diversity, with one SNP every 112 bp. 78% of haplotypes occurred at low frequency (< 5%) within the collection of 20 genotypes. Low intragenic LD was detected for most R genes, and rapid LD decay within 500 bp was detected. Conclusion: Substantial LD decay was found within a distance of 500 bp for most resistance candidate genes in this study. Hence, LD based association analysis is feasible and promising for QTL fine mapping of resistance traits in ryegrass.