Sheath blight, caused by the Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn, is one of the most serious diseases of rice (Oryza sativa L.). The relationship between morphological traits and sheath blight resistance was investigated in 1999 and 2000 by using a segregant population consisting of 240 inbred recombination lines, derived from an elite combination of Zhenshan 97 X Minghui 63. Partial correlation analysis between phenotypic data (morphological characteristics and heading date (HD)) and sheath blight ratings (SBR) showed that only one trait, plant compactness, was significantly correlated with resistance to sheath blight in both 1999 and 2000, eight traits, such as plant height, heading date, and penultimate leaf angle, were significantly correlated with SBR in either of the two years, and the remaining 10 morphological traits were not consistently associated with SBR in the two years. A major quantitative trait locus (QTL) controlling plant compactness was found to be in the site on chromosome 9 adjacent to the region responsible for qSB9, a major QTLs conferring sheath blight resistance. One out of the three QTLs contributing to a penultimate leaf angle was mapped approximately on the same region as another sheath blight resistance QTL, qSB5, located on chromosome 5. Whereas, no QTLs underlying most other traits was detected on the chromosomal region correlated with sheath blight resistance QTL. The results in the present study suggested that the morphological traits were not the main factors responsible for the SBR separation among the recombinant inbred lines (RILs) population. Nevertheless, some morphological characteristics had some indirect influence on expression of sheath blight resistance genes through altering a microclimate on paddy field so as to influence the infection of the pathogen and development of the disease. An efficient approach in resistance breeding to sheath blight was recommended by pyramiding major QTLs for sheath blight resistance and selecting those morphological traits that favor resistance gene
By adding thirty-one markers in the pre- vious linkage map, a new genetic linkage map con- taining 205 markers was constructed, spanning a total of 2305.4 cM with an average interval of 11.2 cM. The genotypic errors in the whole genome were de- tected by the statistical method and removed manu- ally. The precision of the linkage map was improved significantly. Main and epistatic QTL were detected by R/qtl, and main QTL were confirmed and refined by multiple interval mapping (MIM). Finally, MIM de- tected seven QTL for rows number, and five QTL for each grain yield, kernels per row and 100-kernel weight. The contribution to genetic variations of QTL varied from 35.3% for grain yield to 61.5% for rows number. Only kernels per row exhibited significant epistatic interactions between QTL. Twenty-four epistatic QTL were detected which distributed on almost all the ten chromosomes. About two-third epistatic QTL were observed between main QTL and another locus, which had no significant effects. These results indicate rather clearly that there are a number of QTL affecting trait expressions, not directly but indirectly through interactions with other loci. Thus, epistatic QTL effects may play a crucial role, if not more important than main QTL effects, in the genetic variation for the measured traits in present study.
YAN JianbingTANG HuaHUANG YiqinZHENG YonglianSUBHASH ChanderLI Jiansheng
Seedling characteristics such as leaf emergency, chlorophyll content, and height are important for early growth and also associated with seed size. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedling characteristics (leaf length, chlorophyll content, seedling height) and seed size were identified with an attempt to explore the relationship between seedling characteristics and seed size, using a recombinant inbred population derived from a cross between Zhenshan 97A and Minghui 63. Two, one, five, four, four, and nine QTLs were detected for chlorophyll a content, total chlorophyll, length of the second seedling leaf, length of the third seedling leaf, seedling height, and seed size, respectively. The results indicated that four QTLs for seed size and four QTLs for seedling characteristics shared several similar regions (G359-RG532, C567-RG236, RZ403-R19, C371-C405a), respectively, suggesting a close association between seedling characteristics and seed size. Several chromosomal regions influencing seed size, however, had no effects on seedling characteristics, suggesting that it was possible to improve seedling vigor without increasing grain size.
