Identification and validation a major QTL from “Sea Rice 86” seedlings conferred salt tolerance

Abstract

Saline stress severely affects rice (Oryza sativa L.) growth and development and reduces crop yield. Therefore, developing salt-tolerant and high-yielding rice using quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and linkage markers is a priority for molecular breeding. Here, the indica rice Sea Rice 86 (SR86) seedlings showed higher tolerance than ordinary rice varieties in saline soil, and a dominant effect on salinity sensitivity was demonstrated by genetic analysis. We constructed bulked segregant analysis pools using F2 populations from parents Dianjingyou 1 as the recipient and SR86 as the donor. We identified a 2.78 Mb region on chromosome 1 as the candidate region. Using simple sequence repeat markers and substitution analysis, we mapped the target region within 5.49 cM in the vicinity of markers RM8904–RM493. We speculated that this QTL, named qST1.1, might contribute significantly to the salt tolerance of SR86. The high salt tolerance of introgression lines obtained by marker assistant selection (MAS) confirmed that the qST1.1 region was associated with salinity tolerance. This newly-discovered QTL will be helpful for the analysis of the salt-tolerant mechanism of rice and breeding high-quality rice varieties using MAS.