Toward understanding genetic mechanisms of complex traits in rice

Published Date
October 2010, Vol.37(10):653–666, doi:10.1016/S1673-8527(09)60084-9

Author 

Wei Hao

Hong-Xuan Lin ^,

National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China

Received 16 August 2010. Accepted 26 August 2010. Available online 27 October 2010.

Abstract

Rice is the primary carbohydrate staple cereal feeding the world population. Many genes, known as quantitative trait loci (QTLs), control most of the agronomically important traits in rice. The identification of QTLs controlling agricultural traits is vital to increase yield and meet the needs of the increasing human population, but the progress met with challenges due to complex QTL inheritance. To date, many QTLs have been detected in rice, including those responsible for yield and grain quality; salt, drought and submergence tolerance; disease and insect resistance; and nutrient utilization efficiency. Map-based cloning techniques have enabled scientists to successfully fine map and clone approximately seventeen QTLs for several traits. Additional in-depth functional analyses and characterizations of these genes will provide valuable assistance in rice molecular breeding.

Keywords

• rice
• quantitative trait loci (QTLs)
• mapping populations
• marker-assisted selection (MAS)
• map-based cloning

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