Bacterial blight caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae and fungal blast caused by Magnaporthe grisea result in heavy production losses in rice, a main staple food for approximately 50% of the world's population. Application of host resistance to these pathogens is the most economical and environment-friendly approach to solve this problem. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling quantitati...

BACKGROUND Leaf width is an important agricultural trait in maize. Leaf development is dependent on cell proliferation and expansion, and these processes exhibit polarity with respect to the longitudinal and transverse axes of the leaf. However, the molecular mechanism of the genetic control of seed vigor remains unknown in maize, and a better understanding of this mechanism is required. METH...

Salinity tolerance is an important quality for European rice grown in river deltas. We evaluated the salinity tolerance of a panel of 235 temperate japonica rice accessions genotyped with 30,000 SNP markers. The panel was exposed to mild salt stress (50 mM NaCl; conductivity of 6 dS m-1) at the seedling stage. Eight different root and shoot growth parameters were measured for both the control a...

Drought tolerance is one of the most important but complex traits of crops. We looked for quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that affect drought tolerance in maize. Two maize inbreds and their advanced lines were evaluated for drought-related traits. A genetic linkage map developed using RFLP markers was used to identify QTLs associated with drought-related traits. Twenty-two QTLs were detected, wi...

Quantitative genetic analysis has long been used to study how natural variation of genotype can influence an organism's phenotype. While most studies have focused on genetic determinants of phenotypic average, it is rapidly becoming understood that stochastic noise is genetically determined. However, it is not known how many traits display genetic control of stochastic noise nor how broadly the...

Determination of genetic basis of heterosis may promote hybrid production in Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). This study was designed to explore the genetic mechanism of heterosis for yield and yield components in F2: 3 and F2: 4 populations derived from a hybrid 'Xinza No. 1'. Replicated yield field trials of the progenies were conducted in 2008 and 2009. Phenotypic data analyses indicat...

Cold stress is one of the major abiotic stresses that impede rice production. A interconnected breeding (IB) population consisted of 497 advanced lines developed using HHZ as the recurrent parent and eight diverse elite indica lines as the donors were used to identify stably expressed QTLs for CT at the booting stage. A total of 41,754 high-quality SNPs were obtained through re-sequencing of th...

The Arsenic (As) concentration in different tissues of maize was analyzed using a set of RIL populations derived from an elite hybrid, Nongda108. The results showed that the trend of As concentration in the four measured tissues was leaves>stems>bracts>kernels. Eleven QTLs for As concentration were detected in the four tissues. Three QTLs for As concentration in leaves were mapped on chromosome...

Under a hypothesis that the host-parasite interaction system is governed by genome-for-genome interaction, we propose a genetic model that integrates genetic information from both of the host and parasite genomes. The model can be used for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) conferring the interaction between host and parasite and detecting interactions among these QTLs. A one-dimensional ge...

Early blight (EB), caused by fungi Alternaria solani and A. tomatophila, is a major foliar disease of the tomato in many growing regions. Sources of resistance have been identified within the related wild species of tomato, including S. habrochaites, S. peruvianum and S. pimpinellifolium. Breeding for EB resistance via traditional protocols has been difficult due to the complexity of resistance...