Abstract
Many important crop species are outbreeding. In outbreeding species the search for genes affecting traits is complicated by the fact that in a single cross up to four alleles may be present at each locus. This paper is concerned with the search for interacting quantitative trait loci (QTL) in populations which have been obtained by crossing a number of parents. It will be assumed that the parents are unrelated, but the methods can be extended easily to allow a pedigree structure. The approach has two goals: (1) finding QTL that are interacting with other loci and also loci which behave additively; (2) finding parents which segregate at two or more interacting QTL. Large populations obtained by crossing these parents can be used to study interactions in detail. QTL analysis is carried out by means of regression on predictions of QTL genotypes.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to Chris Maliepaard and Fred van Eeuwijk for their comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. This project has been carried out with the financial support from the Commission of the European Communities (Contract No. LK5-CT-2002-01492), Directorate-General Research Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources Program. This manuscript does not necessarily reflect the Commission’s views and in no way anticipates its future policy in this area; its content is the sole responsibility of the authors.
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Jansen, J., Boer, M.P., Bink, M.C.A.M. et al. Searching for interacting QTL in related populations of an outbreeding species. Euphytica 166, 131–144 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-008-9849-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-008-9849-4