Molecular detection of quantitative trait loci for leaf chlorophyll content at different growth-stages of rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Abstract

The objectives of present study are to identify and characterize QTLs for LCC at three different growth stages of rice. In present study, the Recombinant Inbred (RI) lines derived from Asominori (Japonica)/IR 24 (Indica) were used to identify Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) for LCC at three growth stages (45-day-old seedling, maximum tillering and heading) in rice. Continuous variations and transgressive segregation for LCC were observed in the RI population, indicating that LCC was a quantitatively inherited trait at different growth stages of rice. Ten QTLs for LCC were identified and mapped to chromosomes 1(two QTLs), 3(two QTLs), 4, 5, 7(two QTLs), 11, 12, respectively, which accounted for 9.7-25.7% of the total phenotypic variation. Interestingly, non-common QTLs were detected at all three growth stages, clearly indicating that different QTLs control the LCC during growth intervals. In addition, the alleles at the eight QTLs (qLCC-1-1, qLCC-1-2, qLCC-3-1, qLCC-3-2, qLCC-4, qLCC-7-1, qLCC-7-2 and qLCC-12) from Asominori and the remaining alleles at qLCC-5 and qLCC-11 from IR 24 contributed to the increase of LCC. The results and the tightly linked molecular markers that flank the QTLs detected in this study may be useful for improvement of photosynthetic ability at different growth stages of rice. © 2007 Asian Network for Scientific Information.