Quantitative Trait Loci and Epistatic Analysis of Seed Anoxia Germinability in Rice (Oryza sativa)

Anoxia germinability (AG) of 35 rice varieties was evaluated under different temperature and water submergence conditions. The shoot (including coleoptile) length of seedlings germinating under 30℃, 0.2 m water submergence for 5 days could be used as an optimal criterion for the AG evaluation of all the varieties. Differences were observed among the AGs of 359 varieties from different regions and subspecies with the optimized method. Moreover, 81 recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross of Kinmaze (japonica)/DV85 (indica) were used to detect quantitative trait loci (QTLs) conferring AG. A total of five QTLs for AG in the recombinant inbred population were detected on chromosomes 1, 2, 5 and 7, respectively. Phenotypic variations explained by each QTL ranged from 10.5% to 19.6%. Based on the directions of the additive effects, the alleles at three loci qAG-1, qAG-2 and qAG-7 from Kinmaze increased AG, while alleles at loci qAG-5a and qAG-5b from DV85 increased AG. Meanwhile, three pairs of epistatic loci were found to be located on chromosomes 2, 3, 5 and 11 with significant effects ranging from 16.7% to 48.8%, and the highest one 48.78%, was detected between C563–X182 on chromosome 3 and R830–X208 on chromosome 5.