Identification of QTLs associated with physiological nitrogen use efficiency in rice

Demand for low-input sustainable crop cultivation is increasing to meet the need for environment-friendly agriculture. Consequently, developing genotypes with high nutrient use efficiency is one of the major objectives of crop breeding programs. This study was conducted to identify QTLs for traits associated with physiological nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE). A recombinant inbred population (DT-RILs) between Dasan-byeo (a tongil type rice, derived from an indica x japonica cross and similar to indica in its genetic make-up) and TR22183 (a Chinese japonica variety) consisting of 166 F-8 lines was developed and used for mapping. A frame map of 1,409 cM containing 113 SSR and 103 STS markers with an average interval of 6.5 cM between adjacent marker loci was constructed using the DT-RILs. The RILs were cultivated in ordinary-N (N-P2O5-K2O = 100-80-80 kg/ha) and low-N (N-P(2)o(5)K(2)O = 50-80-80 kg/ha) (100 kg/ha) conditions. PNUE was positively correlated with the harvest index and grain yield in both conditions. Twenty single QTLs (S-QTLs) and 58 pairs of epistatic loci (E-QTLs) were identified for the nitrogen concentration of grain, nitrogen concentration of straw, nitrogen content of shoot, harvest index, grain yield, straw yield and PNUE in both conditions. The phenotypic variance explained by these S-QTLs and E-QTLs ranged from 11.1 to 44.3% and from 16.0% to 63.6%, respectively. The total phenotypic variance explained by all the QTLs for each trait ranged from 35.8% to 71.3%, showing that the expression of PNUE and related characters depends signifycantly upon genetic factors. Both S-QTLs and E-QTLs may be useful for marker-assisted selection (MAS) to develop higher PNUE genotypes.