Identification of AFLP Markers Favorable to Heterosis in Hybrid Rice.

Abstract

In hybrid rice breeding programs, it is the most important to select donors for improving parental lines and to predict the hybrid performance. In this study, AFLP marker technology and a half-diallel method were used to address these related issues in hybrid rice. Based on the representative heterosis characters representing in the F1 generation, an innovative method was designed to identify the genetic diversity related to heterosis for yielding with the detected AFLP. The results showed that the genetic diversity among the parental lines was certainly related to F1 heterosis, and a few loci contributed to hybrid vigor. We discovered 11 favorable alleles with different genetic effects significantly contributing to the heterosis in grain yield among 85 AFLP markers, and 8 unfavorable alleles that significantly reduced heterosis. Based on the favorable and unfavorable alleles found, 42 accessions were evaluated for the exploitation potentials of heterosis, as reference for hybrid rice breeding. Moreover, some aspects related to heterosis formation are discussed in this paper.