Development of an Aus -Derived Nested Association Mapping ( Aus -NAM) Population in Rice.

A genetic resource for studying genetic architecture of agronomic traits and environmental adaptation is essential for crop improvements. Here, we report the development of a rice nested association mapping population (-NAM) using 7 varieties as diversity donors and T65 as the common parent. -NAM showed broad phenotypic variations. To test whether -NAM was useful for quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, known flowering genes (, , and ) in rice were characterized using single-family QTL mapping, joint QTL mapping, and the methods based on genome-wide association study (GWAS). was detected in all the seven families and all the methods. On the other hand, and were detected in some families, and joint QTL mapping and GWAS-based methods resulted in weaker and uncertain peaks. Overall, the high allelic variations in -NAM provide a valuable genetic resource for the rice community.