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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1404881
This article is part of the Research Topic Physiology and Breeding of Cereals View all 13 articles

Validation of QTL associated with corn borer resistance and grain yield: Implications in maize breeding

Provisionally accepted
Ana López-Malvar Ana López-Malvar 1Zoila Reséndiz-Ramírez Zoila Reséndiz-Ramírez 2Ana Butron Ana Butron 3JOSE C. JIMENEZ JOSE C. JIMENEZ 2Pedro Revilla Pedro Revilla 3Rosa A. Malvar Rosa A. Malvar 3*
  • 1 Department of Plant Biology and Soil Science, University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain
  • 2 National Institute of Forestry and Agricultural Research (INIFAP), Mexico City, Mexico
  • 3 Biological Mission of Galicia, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Pontevedra, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Validations of previously detected QTL to assess their reliability are crucial before implementing breeding programs. The objective of this study was to determine the reliability and practical usefulness of previously reported QTL for resistance to stem tunneling by the Mediterranean stem borer and yield in a Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC) population of maize. RIL situated at the extremes of resistance and yield distributions within the whole MAGIC, were evaluated per se and crossed to a tester using lattice designs. A significant SNP was considered validated if: 1) the same SNP was associated with the trait with a p-value < 0.02, or 2) within a ± 2Mbp interval, a SNP associated with the trait exhibited a p-value < 0.02 and demonstrated linkage disequilibrium (r2 > 0.2) with the SNPs previously reported. The procedure used allowed to jointly validate several QTL and to ascertain their possible contribution to hybrid improvement. These findings offer insights into the reliability of QTL and genomic predictions, both derived from assessments conducted on the entire MAGIC population. Genomic predictions for tunnel length based on inbred line evaluations could be useful to develop resistant hybrids; meanwhile for yield could only be valid in a homozygous background.

    Keywords: Ana Butron: Data curation, Funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, Writing -review & editing. Ana López-Malvar: Data curation

    Received: 21 Mar 2024; Accepted: 16 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 López-Malvar, Reséndiz-Ramírez, Butron, JIMENEZ, Revilla and Malvar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rosa A. Malvar, Biological Mission of Galicia, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Pontevedra, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.