| Authors: | Brensha, W., Kantartzi, S., Meksem, K., Grier, R., Barakat, A., Lightfoot, D., Kassem, M. |
| Abstract: | Crop productivity is severely reduced by water deficit anddrought in many plant species including soybean. Improvedroot and shoot traits can contribute to drought tolerance abilityof the plant. This research was conducted to identify QTLthat underlie several root and shoot traits in the ?Essex? by?Forrest? (ExF RILs, n=94) recombinant inbred line (RIL) soybeanpopulation. Field collected samples were used for gatheringphenotypic data of basal root thickness (BRT), lateralroot number (LRN), maximum root length (MRL), root freshweight (RFW), root dry weight (RDW), shoot fresh weight(SFW), shoot dry weight (SDW), and calculating RFW/SFW,and RDW/SDW ratios. All traits and ratios were comparedagainst DNA markers using the composite interval mapping(CIM). A total of 12 QTL: 3 for MRL, 1 QTL for LRN, 1 QTL forBRT, 2 QTL for RFW, 2 QTL for RDW, 4 QTL for SFW, 3 QTL forSDW, and 3 QTL for SFW/SDW were identified and mapped ondifferent linkage groups (LGs) A2, B2, C2, D1a, F, G, and N.The LOD scores of these QTL ranged from 2.5 to 6.0. No QTLwere associated with RFW/RDW. The root and shoot trait QTLof this study may benefit breeding programs for producingcultivars tolerant to water deficit and high yield. Preliminaryanalyses of genes the QTL regions using GO annotation gaveinsight into genes that may underlie some of these QTLs. |