QTLs associated with tolerance of flooding during germination in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Direct seeding of rice is increasingly being practiced in both rainfed and irrigated areas because of labor shortage for transplanting and opportunities for crop intensification. However, poor crop establishment remains a major obstacle facing its large-scale adoption in areas prone to flooding. Screening of over 8,000 gene bank accessions and breeding lines identified a few tolerant genotypes. One of these, Khao Hlan On, was selected for mapping QTLs associated with tolerance using a backcross population with IR64 as a recurrent parent. Survival of BC2F2 lines varied from 0 to 68%, and averaged about 28%. A linkage map of 1475.7 cM with an average interval of 11.9 cM was constructed using 135 polymorphic SSRs and 1 indel marker. Five putative QTLs were detected, on chromosomes 1 (qAG-1-2), 3 (qAG-3-1), 7 (qAG-7-2), and 9 (qAG-9-1 and qAG-9-2), explaining 17.9 to 33.5% of the phenotypic variation, and with LOD scores of 5.69-20.34. Khao Hlan On alleles increased tolerance of flooding during germination for all the QTLs. Graphical genotyping of the lines with highest and lowest survival verified the detected QTLs that control tolerance and some QTLs co-localize with previously identified QTLs for traits relevant to tolerance, which warrant further studies.