The genetic improvement of oats requires selection of multiple quantitative and qualitative traits. Knowledge of the genomic regions controlling them makes possible the adoption of marker-assisted selection. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify genomic regions responsible for quantitative traits loci (QTLs) associated with molecular maker previously identified. The experiment was conducted in 2009 and employed a population of 150 recombinant inbred lines of oats from the cross between the oat genotypes UFRGS 8 and UFRGS 930605. QTL mapping was carried out by composite interval analysis. In all, 16 QTLs were detected for 8 of 9 traits analyzed, which were also distributed in seven linkage groups. Phenotypic variation explained by the QTLs ranged from 7.31% to 16.06%. QTLs with important effect on the phenotypic variance were identified for traits of interest in oat breeding programs, such as plant height, number of days to flowering, grain yield, panicle weight and number of grains per panicle. The results generated in this work provide a better understanding of the genetic basis controlling traits of interest, which can be useful for oat breeding programs. However, these results should be validated in other populations in order to allow the marker-assisted selection to be successful.
Avena sativa L.; quantitative trait loci; molecular markers
