Genetic mapping of morpho-physiological traits involved during reproductive stage drought tolerance in rice

PLoS One. 2019 Dec 17;14(12):e0214979. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214979. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Reproductive stage drought stress is an important yield reducing factor in rainfed rice. Genetic mapping of morpho-physiological traits under the stress will help to develop cultivars suitable for drought prone environments through marker-assisted breeding (MAB). Though various yield QTLs under reproductive stage drought tolerance are available for MAB, but no robust markers controlling different morho-physiological traits are available for this stress tolerance. QTLs linked to morpho-physiological traits under drought stress were mapped by evaluating 190 F7 recombinant inbred lines (RIL) using bulk segregant analysis (BSA) strategy. Wide variations were observed in the RILs for eleven morpho-physiological traits involved during the stress. A total of 401 SSR primers were surveyed for parental polymorphism of which 77 were detected to be polymorphic. Inclusive composite interval mapping detected a total of five consistent QTLs controlling leaf rolling (qLR9.1), leaf drying (qLD9.1), harvest index (qHI9.1), spikelet fertility (qSF9.1) and relative water content (qRWC9.1) under reproductive stage drought stress. Another two non-allelic QTLs controlling leaf rolling (qLR8.1) and leaf drying (qLD12.1) were also detected to be linked and found to control the two traits. QTL controlling leaf rolling, qLR8.1 was validated in this mapping population and may be useful in MAB programs. Out of these five consistent QTLs, four (qLR9.1, qLD9.1, qHI9.1 and qRWC9.1) were detected to be novel QTLs and useful for MAB for improvement of reproductive stage drought tolerance in rice.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Physiological / genetics*
  • Chromosome Mapping / methods
  • Droughts
  • Genotype
  • Microsatellite Repeats / genetics
  • Oryza / genetics*
  • Phenotype
  • Plant Breeding / methods
  • Plant Leaves / genetics
  • Quantitative Trait Loci
  • Salt-Tolerant Plants / genetics*
  • Stress, Physiological / genetics

Grants and funding

The expenditure for the research work was from our internal institutional source. No external funding sources has been used for the purpose. The funders had no role in study, design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.