Diverse metabolites across maize GWAS panel for dissecting maize genetic architecture (Plant Cell)

Plants can produce metabolites that are directly involved in various biological pathways. Identifying variations of specific metabolites in different genotypes would facilitate the understanding underlying complex genetic architecture of maize. One of most representative natural diversity panels, the 282 Goodman Diversity Panel, was used to perform LC-MS on tips and bases of leaves of each genotype. In total, 7,000 mass features survived after filtering. Based on the retention time, three major classes of metabolites were separated, phenylpropanoids,  benzoxazinoid-like and flavonoid-like. Using these metabolites, GWAS results show that the majority of metabolites were significantly associated with genomic loci. This massive information from the metabolomic side can serve as a valuable resource for bridging the gap between genotype and phenotype, which provides an opportunity to explain phenotypic variants. (Summary by Zhikai Liang)  Plant Cell 10.1105/tpc.18.00772