QTL mapping of spike fertility index in bread wheat

Abstract

Spike fertility index (SF) is a trait easily measured at maturity andstrongly associated with the number of grains per unit area. In order to identifygenomic regions involved in SF control, a biparental (Baguette 10 × Klein Chajá)population of 80 recombinant inbred lines (RIL) was used. Seven field trailswere conducted to determine the SF BLUP value per RIL. RILs were genotypedusing a commercial chip (Axiom® 35K SNP Wheat Breeder?s Array, Affimetrix).A linkage map was constructed with 857 SNP markers, and SF QTL mappingwas performed. The narrow-sense heritability of SF was 0.89. Three genomicregions (QTL) associated with SF were found on chromosomes 2D, 4A, and 7A.The proportion of genetic variation explained by these three QTL was 32%, withno significant epistatic interaction between QTL.