Conditional and unconditional mapping of quantitative trait loci underlying plant height and tiller number in rice ( Oryza sativa L.) grown at two nitrogen levels

Abstract

In this study, we used 127 double haploid (DH) lines to analyze agricultural traits of rice. The DH lines, derived from a ZYQ8 ( indica)/JX17 ( japonica) cross by anther culture, contained 160 RFLP and 83 SSR markers. Unconditional and conditional quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping was conducted to analyze plant height (PH) and tillers per plant (TP) at five growth stages that were grown at two nitrogen levels. Fourteen PH and 13 TP unconditional QTL were identified in the different growth stages, including 19 QTL from high-nitrogen (HN) and 14 QTL from low-nitrogen (LN) conditions. The conditional QTL for 14 genomic regions under LN/HN conditions showed that there was a significant effect on PH and TP across the different stages. Only one conditional QTL, ph2-3, was unable to be detected in unconditional mapping. More QTL were detected in the first four rice growth stages than in the final stage. Furthermore, a line from the DH mapping population, DH78, was identified in extreme phenotypes of PH and TP that exhibited dwarfism and less-tiller (dft) characters. The gene dft1 was mapped to chromosome 2 using a backcrossed population of DH78/JX17 through a map-based cloning strategy. The location of dft1 coincided with the mapping region of the small-LOD peak, QTL ph2 and tp2, which were identified in plants grown in low-nitrogen conditions. Further backcrossing and fine-mapping successfully delimited the dft1 locus to a 91 kb region.