Mapping of additive and epistatic QTLs linked to seed longevity in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Plant genetic resources are stored and regenerated in > 1750 gene banks storing > 7,000,000 accessions. Since seeds are the primary storage units, research on seed longevity is of particular importance. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis of 15 traits related to seed longevity and dormancy using 7584 high-quality SNPs recorded across 2 years and originated from five production years revealed a total of 46 additive QTLs. Exploration of the QTLs with epistatic effect resulted in the detection of 29 pairs of epistatic QTLs. To our information, this is only the second report of epistatic QTLs for seed longevity in bread wheat. We conclude that in addition to dense genetic maps, the epistatic interaction between loci should be considered to capture more variation which remained unnoticed in additive mapping.