QTL mapping for stay-green in maize (Zea mays)

Wang, A.-y., Li, Y. and Zhang, C.-q. 2012. QTL mapping for stay-green in maize ( Zea mays ). Can. J. Plant Sci. 92: 249–256. Stay-green is a desirable character for crop production. In order to explore the genetic basis for stay-green traits in maize, 112 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to analyze 189 F2 individuals derived from a single cross of inbred lines A150-3-2 (a stay-green inbred line) and Mo17 (a normal inbred line). A total of 14 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were detected for three stay-green related traits, green leaf area per plant at 30 d after flowering (GLA2), green leaf area per plant at the grain-ripening stage (GLA3), and left green leaf number per plant at the grain-ripening stage (LLN). Single QTL explained from 3.16 to 12.50% of the phenotypic variance. Among them, three were major QTLs. In addition, we analyzed the other two traits, green leaf area per plant in the whole growing period (GLA1) and total leaf number per plant in the whole growing period (TLN), and detected eight QTLs for them. Our results will be helpful to the maize breeders for marker-assisted selection.