Mapping of QTLs controlling cold tolerance in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

In this research, 124 individuals of an F2 population derived from a cross between Domsiah variety (cold susceptible) and PR27137-CR153 line (cold resistant) were evaluated to identify the QTLs controlling cold tolerance in rice. Linkage map were established using 20 polymorphic SSRs and 81 AFLP markers which totally covered 3111 cM of the rice genome with an average distance of 31.67 cM. Composite interval mapping was used to determine the association between markers and traits that overall 13 QTLs were found for cold induced wilting tolerance (CIWT), cold induced necrosis tolerance (CINT), cold induced yellowing tolerance (CIYT) and cold tolerance (CT) traits. Three QTLs on chromosomes 2, 8 and 12 for CIWT, 5 QTLs on chromosomes 1, 3, 3, 10 and 12 for CINT, 3 QTLs on chromosomes 1, 2 and 8 for CIYT and 2 QTLs on chromosomes 3 and 12 for CT were mapped. Two major QTLs, qCIWT12 and qCINT12 on chromosome 12 revealed a significant contribution of phenotypic variance and also markers RM7200 and E64-M59-5 were nearly two QTLs.