Background

Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) disease causes substantial losses of grain yield and forage biomass in susceptible maize cultivars. Maize resistance to SCMV is associated with two dominant genes, Scmv1 and Scmv2, which are located on the short arm of chromosome 6 and near the centromere region of chromosome 3, respectively. We combined both linkage and association mapping to identify positional candidate genes for Scmv1. Results

Scmv1 was fine-mapped in a segregating population derived from near-isogenic lines and further validated and fine-mapped using two recombinant inbred line populations. The combined results assigned the Scmv1 locus to a 59.21-kb interval, and candidate genes within this region were predicted based on the publicly available B73 sequence. None of three predicted genes that are possibly involved in the disease resistance response are similar to receptor-like resistance genes. Candidate gene–based association mapping was conducted using a panel of 94 inbred lines with variable resistance to SCMV. A presence/absence variation (PAV) in the Scmv1 region and two polymorphic sites around the Zmtrx-h gene were significantly associated with SCMV resistance. Conclusion

Combined linkage and association mapping pinpoints Zmtrx-h as the most likely positional candidate gene for Scmv1. These results pave the way towards cloning of Scmv1 and facilitate marker-assisted selection for potyvirus resistance in maize.