Fine mapping of qHUS6.1 , a quantitative trait locus for silicon content in rice ( Oryza sativa L.)

Silicon is essential for optimal growth of rice (Oryza sativa L.). This study was conducted to fine map qHUS6.1, a quantitative trait locus (QTL) for rice hull silicon content previously located in the interval RM510-RM19417 on the short arm of chromosome 6, and to analyze the effect of this QTL on the silicon content in different organs of rice. Selfed progenies of a residual heterozygous line of rice were detected using 13 microsatellite markers in the vicinity of qHUS6.1. Three plants with overlapping heterozygous segments were selected. Three sets of near isogenic lines (NILs) were developed from the selfed progenies of the 3 plants. They were grown in a paddy field and the silicon contents of the hull, flag leaf, and stem were measured at maturity. Based on analyses of the phenotypic distribution and variance among different genotypic groups in the same NIL set, a significant genotypic effect was shown in the NIL set that was heterogenous in the interval RM19410-RM5815, whereas a significant effect was not found in the remaining 2 NIL sets that were heterogenous in either of the intervals RM4923-RM19410 or RM19417-RM204. On comparison among the physical positions of the 3 heterogenous segments, qHUS6.1 was delimited to a 64.2-kb region flanked by RM19410 and RM19417 that contains nine annotated genes according to the genome sequence of Nipponbare. This QTL showed strong effects on all of the three traits tested, and the enhancing alleles were always derived from the paternal line Milyang 46. The present study will facilitate the cloning of qHUS6.1 and the exploration of new genetic resources for QTL fine mapping.