Abstract
A major limiting factor for high productivity of maize (Zea mays L.) in dense planting is light penetration through the canopy. Plant architecture with a narrower leaf angle (LA) and an optimum leaf orientation value (LOV) is desirable to increase light capture for photosynthesis and production per unit area. However, the genetic control of the plant architecture traits remains poorly understood in maize. In this study, QTL for LA, LOV, and related traits were mapped using a set of 229 F2:3 families derived from the cross between compact and expanded inbred lines, evaluated in three environments. Twenty-five QTL were detected in total. Three of the QTL explained 37.4% and five of the QTL explained 53.9% of the phenotypic variance for LA and LOV, respectively. Two key genome regions controlling leaf angle and leaf orientation were identified. qLA1 and qLOV1 at nearest marker umc2226 on chromosome 1.02 accounted for 20.4 and 23.2% of the phenotypic variance, respectively; qLA5 and qLOV5 at nearest bnlg1287 on chromosome 5 accounted for 9.7 and 9.8% of the phenotypic variance, respectively. These QTL could provide useful information for marker-assisted selection in improving performance of plant architecture with regard to leaf angle and orientation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Austin DF, Lee M (1998) Detection of quantitative trait loci for grain yield and yield components in maize across generations in stress and nonstress environments. Crop Sci 38:1296–1308
Austin DF, Lee M, Veldboom LR (2001) Genetic mapping in maize with hybrid progeny across testers and generations: plant height and flowering. Theor Appl Genet 102:163–176
Beavis WD, Smith OS, Grant D, Fincher R (1994) Identi-fication of quantitative trait loci usinga small sample of topcrossed and F4 progeny from maize. Crop Sci 34:882–896
Berke T, Rocheford T (1995) Quantitative trait loci for flowering, plant and ear height, and kernel traits in maize. Crop Sci 35:1542–1549
Chen P, Jiang L, Yu CY et al (2008) The identification and mapping of a tiller angle QTL on rice chromosome 9. Crop Sci 48:1799–1806
Duvick DN (1977) Genetic rates of gain in hybrid maize yields during the past 40 years. Maydica 22:187–196
Duvick DN (1992) Genetic contributions to advances in yield of United States maize. Maydica 37:69–79
Duvick DN (1997) What is yield? In: Edmeades GO (ed) Developing drought and low N-tolerant maize. CIMMYT, El Batan, Mexico, pp 332–335
Duvick DN (2005) The contribution of breeding to yield advances in maize (Zea mays L.). Advances in agronomy, vol 86. Elsevier Academic Press Inc., San Diego, pp 83–145
Duvick DN, Cassman KG (1999) Post-green revolution trends yield potential of temperate maize in the north-central United States. Crop Sci 39:1622–1630
Fellner M, Horton LA, Cocke AE, Stephens NR, Ford ED, Van Volkenburgh E (2003) Light interacts with auxin during leaf elongation and leaf angle development in young corn seedlings. Planta 216:366–376
Frova C, Krajewski P, di Fonzo N (1999) Genetic analysis of drought tolerance in maize by molecular markers. I. Yield components. Theor Appl Genet 99:280–288
Jiang C, Zeng ZB (1995) Multiple trait analysis of genetic mapping for quantitative trait loci. Genetics 140:1111–1127
Jin J, Huang W, Gao JP, Yang J, Shi M, Zhu MZ, Luo D, Lin HX (2008) Genetic control of rice plant architecture under domestication. Nature Genet 40:1365–1369
Juarez MT, Twigg RW, Timmermans MCP (2004) Specification of adaxial cell fate during maize leaf development. Development 131:4533–4544
Kebrom TH, Brutnell TP (2007) The molecular analysis of the shade avoidance syndrome in the grasses has begun. J Exp Bot 58:3079–3089
Khush GS (2001) Green revolution: the way forward. Nat Rev Genet 2:815–822
Knapp SJ, Stroup WW, Ross WM (1985) Exact confidence intervals for heritability on a progeny mean basis. Crop Sci 25:192–194
Lambert RJ, Johnson RR (1978) Leaf angle, tassel morphology, and the performance of maize hybrids. Crop Sci 18:499–502
Lander ES, Green P, Abrahamson J, Barlow A, Daly MJ, Lincoln SE, Newburg L (1987) MAPMAKER: an interactive computer package for constructing primary genetic linkage maps of experimental and natural populations. Genomics 1:174–181
Li DH (2001) History and review of the prospect of compact maize breeding. J Laiyang Agric Coll 18(1):1–6
Li Z, Paterson AH, Pinson SRM, Khush GS (1998) A major gene, Tal and QTLs affecting tiller and leaf angles in rice. Crop Sci 38:12–19
Li ZK, Paterson AH, Pinson SRM, Stansei JW (1999) RFLP facilitated analysis of tiller and leaf angles in rice (Oryza sativa L.). Euphytica 109:79–84
Li PJ, Wang YH, Qian Q, Fu Z, Wang M, Zeng D, Li B, Wang X, Li J (2007) LAZY1 controls rice shoot gravitropism through regulating polar anxin transport. Cell Res 17:402–410
Lima MLA, Souza CL Jr, Bento DAV, Souza AP, Carlini-Garcia LA (2006) Mapping QTL for grain yield and plan t traits in a tropical maize population. Mol Breeding 17(3):227–239
Lu M, Zhou F, Xie CX, Li MS, Xu YB, Marilyn W, Zhang SH (2007) Construction of a SSR linkage map and mapping of quantitative trait loci(QTL)for leaf angle and leaf orientation with an elite maize hybrid. Heredita 29:113–1131
Mickelson SM, Stuber CS, Senior L, Kaeppler SM (2002) Quantitative trait loci controlling leaf and tassel traits in a B73M o17 population of maize. Crop Sci 42:1902–1909
Milena L, Souza C, Bento D, Souza A, Carlini-Gracia L (2006) Mapping QTL for grain yield and plant traits in a tropical maize population. Mol Breeding 17:227–239
Pendleton JW, Smith GE, Winter SR, Johnston TJ (1968) Field investigations of the relationships of leaf angle in corn (Zea mays L.) to grain yield and apparent photosynthesis. Agron J 60:422–424
Pepper GE, Pearce RB, Mock JJ (1977) Leaf orientation and yield of maize. Crop Sci 17:883–886
Qian Q, He P, Teng S, Zeng DL, Zhu LH (2001) QTLs analysis of tiller angle in rice (Oryza sativa L.). Acta Genetica Sinica 28(1):29–32
Ribaut JM, Jiang C, Gonzalez-de-Leon D, Edmeades GO, Hoisington DA (1996) Identification of quantitative trait loci under drought conditions in tropical maize. 1. Flowering parameters and the anthesis-silking interval. Theor Appl Genet 92:905–914
Russell WA (1984) Agronomic performance of maize cultivars representing different eras of breeding. Maydica 29:375–390
Russell WA (1985) Evaluations for plant, ear, and grain traits of maize cultivars representing 7 eras of breeding. Maydica 30:85–96
Russell WA (1991) Genetic-improvement of maize yields. Adv Agron 46:245–298
Sakamoto T, Morinaka Y, Ohnishi T, Sunohara H, Fujioka S, Ueguchi-Tanaka M, Mizutani M, Sakata K, Takatsuto S, Yoshida S, Tanaka H, Kitano H, Matsuoka M (2006) Erect leaves caused by brassinosteroid deficiency increase biomass production and grain yield in rice. Nat Biotechnol 24:105–109
Schön CC, Utz FH, Groh S, Truberg B, Openshaw S (2004) Quantitative trait locus mapping based on resampling in a vast maize testcross experiment and its relevance to quantitative genetics for complex traits. Genetics 167:485–498
Shen S, Zhuang J, Bao J, Zheng K, Xia Y, Shu Q (2005) Analysis of QTLs with additive, epistasis and G × E interaction effects of the tillering angle trait in rice. J Agri Biotech 13:16–20
Stuber CW, Edwards MD, Wendel J (1987) F1 Molecular marker facilitated investigations of quantitative trait loci in maize. II. Factors influencing yield and its component traits. Crop Sci 27:639–648
Stuber CW, Polacco M, Senior ML (1999) Synergy of empirical breeding, marker-assisted selection, and genomics to increase crop yield potentia1. Crop Sci 39:1571–1583
Sun SX (2003) Introduction on America corn yield contest in 2002. J Maize Sci 12:102
Tan LB, Li XR, Liu FX, Sun XY, Li CG, Zhu ZF, Fu YC, Cai HW, Wang XK, Xie DX, Sun CQ (2008) Control of a key transition from prostrate to erect growth in rice domestication. Nature Genet 40(11):1360–1364
Tang JH, Teng WT, Yan JB, Ma XQ, Meng YJ, Dai JR, Li JS (2007) Genetic dissection of plant height by molecular markers using a population of recombinant inbred lines in maize. Euphytica 155:117–124
Tollenaar M, Wu J (1999) Yield improvement in temperate maize is attributable to greater stress tolerance. Crop Sci 39:1597–1604
Trachsel S, Messmer R, Stamp P, Hund A (2009) Mapping of QTLs for lateral and axile root growth of tropical maize. Theor Appl Genet 119:1413–1424
Troyer F (2001) Temperate corn-background, behavior, and breeding. In: Hallauer AR (ed) Specialty corns. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 393–466
Veldboom LR, Lee M, Woodman WL (1994) Molecular marker facilitated studies of morphological traits in maize. II. Determination of QTLs for grain yield and yield components. Theor Appl Genet 89(4):451–458
Wang S, Basten CJ, Zeng ZB (2007). Windows QTL Cartographer 2.5. Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. (http://statgen.ncsu.edu/qtlcart/WQTLCart.htm)
Wang CL, Cheng FF, Sun ZH, Tang JH, Wu LC, Ku LX, Chen YH (2008a) Genetic analysis of photoperiod sensitivity in a tropical by temperate maize recombinant inbrid population using molecular markers. Theor Appl Genet 117:1129–1139
Wang L, Xu YY, Zhang C, Ma Q, Joo SH, Kim SK, Xu ZH, Chong K (2008b) OsLIC, a novel CCCH-type zinc finger protein with transcription activation, mediates rice architecture via brassinosteroids signaling. PLoS ONE 3(10):e3521
Xu Y, McCouch SR, Shen Z (1998) Transgressive segregation of tiller angle in rice caused by complementary gene action. Crop Sci 38:12–19
Yang JS, Wang YJ, Li DH (2007) Study on cultiva tion of super-high yield summer maize. J Qingdao Agric Univ (Natural Science) 24:97–100
Yu CY, Liu YQ, Jiang L (2005) QTLs mapping and genetic analysis of tiller angle in rice (Oryza sativa L.). Acta Genetica Sin 32:948–954
Yu YT, Zhang JM, Shi YS, Song YC, Wang TY, Li Y (2006) QTL analysis for plant height and leaf angle by using different populations of maize. J Maize Sci 14(2):88–92
Yu BS, Lin ZG, Li HX et al (2007a) TAC1, a major quantitative trait locus controlling tiller angle in rice. Plant J 52:891–898
Yu BS, Lin ZW, Li HX, Li XJ, Li JY, Wang YH, Zhang X, Zhu ZF, Zhai WX, Wang XK, Xie DX, Sun CQ (2007b) QTLs mapping and genetic analysis of tiller angle in rice (Oryza sativa L.). Acta Genetica Sin 32(9):948–954
Acknowledgments
The authors are very grateful to Professor Robert Turgeon and Mrs. Georgene Strauch of Cornell University, USA, and Professor Li Jiansheng of China Agricultural University, for critically reviewing and revising the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2006AA001003) and National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2009CB118400).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by A. Charcosset.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ku, L.X., Zhao, W.M., Zhang, J. et al. Quantitative trait loci mapping of leaf angle and leaf orientation value in maize (Zea mays L.). Theor Appl Genet 121, 951–959 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-010-1364-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-010-1364-z