Genome-wide association study on agronomic traits of temperate japonica rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Temperate japonica rice plays a very important role in food security. In this study, a set of 191 temperate japonica accessions from 30 countries were planted in two sites in China, and 12 agronomic traits were measured. The results showed a wide range of variation for the traits measured. Most of the accessions are short; three accessions with large panicles and seven accessions with large grains were identified. Sixty-two quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were identified for 12 traits that were measured. Among them, twenty-one QTLs were identified in both experiments, and 41 QTLs were identified in only one site. Some known genes are located in the QTL regions identified in our study. SNP markers for grain size were identified and could be efficiently used for breeding selection. This study provided useful information for future gene validation and marker assisted selection for some important agronomic traits of temperate japonica rice.