Identification of QTLs linked to plant height and maturity time in rice

The objective of this study was to determine the microsatellite (SSR) and AFLP markers linked to plant height and maturity time in the 188 F2:3 families derived from the cross between two Iranian rice cultivars, Binam and Kadous for using in marker assisted selection method and pyramiding of genes (QTLs) for decreasing of plant height and maturity time in progenies. Among SSR and AFLP markers that used in this research, 61 SSR and 74 AFLP markers had adequate polymorphism between the parents that were used to construct linkage map of the population. The average distance of adjacent markers was 14.06 cM and covers 1786.4 cM of the rice genome. Using the Composite interval mapping (CIM) method, 5 QTLs were mapped for plant height on the chromosomes 3, 7, 9, 10 and 11, and 2 QTLs for maturity time on the chromosomes 6 and 7. These QTLs totally controlled 62.82 % and 23.96 % of the phenotypic variance of 2 traits, respectively. Among these mapped QTLs, qPH-3 (between P36-M42-3_RM232) and qPH-10 (between RM147_P77-M62-4) for plant height and qMD-6 (between RM314_P51-M74-4) for maturity timewith distance from nearest markers, respectively equal 5.5, 19.7 and 0.8 cM, controlled 17.16 %, 15.47 % and 15.71 % of the phenotypic variance, respectively. These QTLs were identified as effective and relatively major QTLs for plant height and maturity times. Results showed that these three QTLs can be used for pyramiding of genes and their linkage markers can be used in marker assisted selection programs for selection of dwarf and early lines in these segregating populations.