DETERMINATION AND PREDICTION OF THE EXPRESSION OF TRAITS OF PLANTS FROM THE METABOLITE PROFILE AS A BIOMARKER

摘要

The present invention relates to a method for determining the correlation between the metabolite profiles (MPs) and the expression or potential for expression of a trait of a group of plants, and further to a method for determining or predicting the expression of a trait of a plant by taking advantage of the determined MP of said plant and a determined correlation between the MPs and the expression or potential for the expression of said trait in a group of plants. Particularly, the present invention relates to a method for determining or predicting the biomass production/growth rate of a plant by taking advantage of the determined MP of said plant and a determined correlation between the MPs and the biomass production/growth rate or the potential for biomass production/growth rate of a group of plants. The present invention also relates to a method for breeding of a plant that takes advantage of a method of determining the expression or potential for expression of a trait of said plant according to any one of the methods as disclosed, and selecting said plant on the basis of the expression or potential for expression of said trait. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method for identifying quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for a trait or for the potential for expression of a trait of a group of plants comprising the step of identifying QTLs for metabolite combinations showing correlation with the expression or potential for expression of said trait of said group of plants. The present invention also relates to and a method for identifying a candidate gene involved in the determination of expression or potential for expression of a trait of a plant comprising the step of isolating a gene corresponding to any one of the QTLs as identified by the corresponding method of the present invention. Additionally, the present invention relates to a method of screening for a plant that exhibits a desired expression or potential for expression of a trait as well as to a method of determining whether a treatment influences the expression or potential for expression of a trait of a plant.