title: Association mapping for epistasis and environmental interaction of yield traits in 323 cotton cultivars under 9 different environments.
abstract: Improving yield is a major objective for cotton breeding schemes, and lint yield and its three component traits (boll number, boll weight and lint percentage) are complex traits controlled by multiple genes and various environments. Association mapping was performed to detect markers associated with these four traits using 651 simple sequence repeats (SSRs). A mixed linear model including epistasis and environmental interaction was used to screen the loci associated with these four yield traits by 323 accessions of Gossypium hirsutum L. evaluated in nine different environments. 251 significant loci were detected to be associated with lint yield and its three components, including 69 loci with individual effects and all involved in epistasis interactions. These significant loci explain ∼ 62.05% of the phenotypic variance (ranging from 49.06% ∼ 72.29% for these four traits). It was indicated by high contribution of environmental interaction to the phenotypic variance for lint yield and boll numbers, that genetic effects of SSR loci were susceptible to environment factors. Shared loci were also observed among these four traits, which may be used for simultaneous improvement in cotton breeding for yield traits. Furthermore, consistent and elite loci were screened with -Log10 (P-value) >8.0 based on predicted effects of loci detected in different environments. There was one locus and 6 pairs of epistasis for lint yield, 4 loci and 10 epistasis for boll number, 15 loci and 2 epistasis for boll weight, and 2 loci and 5 epistasis for lint percentage, respectively. These results provided insights into the genetic basis of lint yield and its components and may be useful for marker-assisted breeding to improve cotton production.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICR, CAAS), State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Key Laboratory of Cotton Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Anyang, China.
authors.forename: Yinhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Crop Germplasm Resource of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICR, CAAS), State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Key Laboratory of Cotton Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Anyang, China.
authors.forename: Junling
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICR, CAAS), State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Key Laboratory of Cotton Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Anyang, China.
authors.forename: Zhaoe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICR, CAAS), State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Key Laboratory of Cotton Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Anyang, China.
authors.forename: Xiwen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICR, CAAS), State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Key Laboratory of Cotton Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Anyang, China.
authors.forename: Shoupu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Institute of industrial Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Songhua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Economic Crop Research Institute, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science, Urumqi1, China.
authors.forename: Weijun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICR, CAAS), State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Key Laboratory of Cotton Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Anyang, China.
authors.forename: Zhongli
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICR, CAAS), State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Key Laboratory of Cotton Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Anyang, China.
authors.forename: Baoyin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICR, CAAS), State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Key Laboratory of Cotton Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Anyang, China.
authors.forename: Liru
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of industrial Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Jianguang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Economic Crop Research Institute, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science, Urumqi1, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICR, CAAS), State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Key Laboratory of Cotton Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Anyang, China.
authors.forename: Xiongming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Crop Germplasm Resource of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000483:Alleles; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D004777:Environment; D004843:Epistasis, Genetic; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D003368:Gossypium / Q000235:genetics*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010641:Phenotype; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci