Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40796123›Full record

ArticleGenetics2025

Mediated pleiotropy drives the negative correlation of total carotenoid and dry matter contents in cassava (Manihot esculenta).

Seren S Villwock, Elizabeth Y Parkes, Edwige Gaby Nkouaya Mbanjo, Ismail Y Rabbi, Jean-Luc Jannink

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Article in Genetics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Seren S VillwockCollege of Agriculture and Life Sciences, School of Integrative Plant Science, Section of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-4137-2698
Elizabeth Y ParkesInternational Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Southern Africa Research & Administration Hub, Chongwe District 10100, Lusaka Province, Zambia.
Edwige Gaby Nkouaya MbanjoInternational Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Headquarters & West Africa Hub, Ibadan, Oyo State 200001, Nigeria.
Ismail Y RabbiInternational Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Headquarters & West Africa Hub, Ibadan, Oyo State 200001, Nigeria.
Jean-Luc JanninkCollege of Agriculture and Life Sciences, School of Integrative Plant Science, Section of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-4849-628X

Funding

USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Plant breeders aim to increase provitamin A carotenoids in cassava (Manihot esculenta) storage roots to help combat vitamin A deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa, but a negative genetic correlation between total carotenoid and dry matter contents hinders progress. While genetic linkage between a major-effect variant in the phytoene synthase 2 (PSY2) gene and nearby candidate gene(s) has been thought to drive this correlation, molecular evidence suggests there may be a metabolic relationship between total carotenoid and dry matter, implying genome-wide pleiotropic effects. Bivariate genome-wide associations were used to examine the genetic architecture of the negative covariance between traits and test for pleiotropy. A population of 378 accessions in the yellow-fleshed cassava breeding program at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria was genotyped with DArTseqLD and phenotyped in field trials over 10 yr across three locations in Nigeria. Mixed linear models controlling for the previously identified PSY2 causal variant were used to identify multiple new pleiotropic loci. Among 17 jointly associated loci at a relaxed significance threshold, most (11 of 17) affected total carotenoid and dry matter in opposite directions, although this pattern did not reach statistical significance in a binomial test. Even after accounting for these 17 loci as covariates, significantly negative polygenic covariance between total carotenoid and dry matter remained. These findings support the hypothesis that widespread mediated pleiotropy rather than genetic linkage drives the negative genetic correlation between total carotenoid and dry matter in cassava and demonstrate a new application of multivariate genome-wide association study for interrogating the genetic architecture of correlated traits.

Indexed as

CarotenoidsGenetic PleiotropyManihotGenome-Wide Association StudyGeranylgeranyl-Diphosphate GeranylgeranyltransferasePhenotypePlant BreedingPlant ProteinsPolymorphism, Single NucleotideQuantitative Trait LociCarotenoidsGeranylgeranyl-Diphosphate GeranylgeranyltransferasePlant Proteinsbiofortificationgenetic linkageGWASpleiotropy

Identifiers

PMID40796123
PMCPMC12505300

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.