Genetic mapping of agronomic traits using recombinant inbred lines of soybean

Many agronomic traits of interest to plant breeders are quantitative. Recombinant inbred (RI) lines are particularly useful in genetic mapping studies of quantitative traits. A recombinant inbred population was derived from the Glycine max (L.) Merr. parents 'Minsoy' and 'Noir 1'. This soybean population was used to investigate the genetic basis of several agronomic traits: days to flower (R1), days to maturity (R8), reproductive period (R8- R1), plant height, lodging score, height divided by lodging (the ability of tall plants to stand upright), seed protein content, seed oil content, seed size, yield, seed number, yield divided by height (the yield from short plants), leaf width, leaf length, and leaf area. In this RI population, transgressive segregation was observed for all of these traits. As expected, height and lodging were correlated, as were height and maturity; height and maturity with yield; and leaf length and width with leaf area. Height divided by lodging and yield divided by height showed little correlation with other traits, indicating that these traits measured new plant phenotypes. A genetic map was constructed for this population, with restriction fragment length polymorphism markers, simple sequence repeat markers and classical markers. Approximately 2000 cM of linkage was defined. The data were used to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) by linking quantitative phenotypes to qualitative genetic markers. For many traits, a few QTLs accounted for a large proportion of the variation observed. QTLs for most of the traits were associated with three linkage groups, often with the same genetic locus within the linkage group. At the level of resolution of the genetic map for this population, it was not possible to determine whether these QTLs have pleiotrophic effects or are clusters of separate, tightly linked genes. The data suggest that separation of QTLs for different traits (such as maturity or lodging and yield) may be difficult, but that this RI population will be useful in resolving questions concerning marker assisted selection of quantitative traits.