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Heterotic loci for various morphological traits of maize detected using a single segment substitution lines test-cross population

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Abstract

Heterosis has been exploited to increase grain yield, quality, and resistance in many crops, and it plays an important role in plant breeding. However, the genetic mechanism of heterosis remains unclear. To dissect the genetic basis of heterosis, a set of 203 single segment substitution lines (SSSLs) was developed, and its test-cross population was used to identify heterotic loci (HL) for plant morphological traits in maize, including plant height (PH), ear height (EH), leaf number (LN), tassel main axis length (TMAL), and tassel branch number (TBN). A total of 41 QTLs and 37 HL were identified for five morphological traits in the test-cross population derived from the 203 SSSLs and the parent, Xu178. Nine HL for PH, nine HL for EH, seven HL for LN, seven HL for TMAL, and five HL for TBN were detected in three different environments, respectively. Eight HL, ph1a, ph1b, ph2, ph5, eh3a, eh3b, eh10, and tmal1b, were simultaneously detected in the three environments. Among the 37 HL, only 10 (27.03 %; for PH, EH, LN, and TBN) had a corresponding QTL (24.39 %) sharing the same chromosomal region. Of all the HL, 21.4 % showed dominance effects, 76.8 % showed over-dominance effects, and only one (1.8 %) showed a partial-dominance effect. This result illustrated that heterosis and performance was controlled by different genetic mechanisms, and over-dominance effects were the main contributors to heterosis for plant-related traits at the single-locus level in maize.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the State Key Basic Research and Development Plan of China (2014CB138203) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31271732).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Key Laboratory of Wheat and Maize Crops Science/Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Grain Crops/College of Agronomy, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

      Xiaoyi Wei, Bin Wang, Qian Peng, Feng Wei, Keju Mao, Xiangge Zhang, Zonghua Liu & Jihua Tang

    2. Xinxiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang, 453000, China

      Xiaoyi Wei, Feng Wei & Pei Sun

    3. College of Agronomy, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471023, China

      Bin Wang

    4. Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Industry, Jingzhou, 434023, China

      Jihua Tang

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    1. Xiaoyi Wei
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    Correspondence to Jihua Tang.

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    Xiaoyi Wei and Bin Wang have contributed equally to this work.

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    Wei, X., Wang, B., Peng, Q. et al. Heterotic loci for various morphological traits of maize detected using a single segment substitution lines test-cross population. Mol Breeding 35, 94 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-015-0287-4

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