Previously
we reported the identification of seven quantitative trait loci (QTLs)
associated with the rice yield measuring five parameters including panicles per
plant (PPP), spikelets per panicle (SPP), seed set percentage (SSP), 1000-grain
weight (TGW) and yield in 2012. Here we report the analysis of QTLs using the
same trait parameters data of the mapping population in 2013 for detecting
highly conserved QTL markers. A total of 6 QTLs were identified from
chromosomes 1, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12, which were contrasted with our previous
results (chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 11). In this comparison, three QTLs
from chromosome 1, 8, and 11 were only found to be associated with the
components of yield over two consecutive years indicating high sensitivity of
QTL markers to the environment. Of those three QTLs, SPP-associated marker
RM12285 was found to be dominantly expressed by real-time PCR (qPCR). In
addition, compared to our previous report the numbers of mapping population and
markers were significantly increased for higher resolution markers from 70 to
120, and from 143 to 217, respectively. We also found that the parameter SPP
was dominantly correlated with the rice yield. Furthermore, the double haploid
(DH) population facilitated to analyze the epistatic effects for yield and
yield components in rice. Taken together, combining multiple mapping population
data over years possibly enables narrowing down to the highly conserved QTL
markers against diverse environmental fluctuation caused by such as drought and
high temperature. Thus, these data would be critically exploited to improve for
the crop breeding strategy.