QTL mapping of resistance to Sclerotinia midstalk rot in RIL of sunflower population NDBLOSsel x CM625.

Midstalk rot caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is an important disease of sunflower in its main areas of cultivation. The objectives of this study were to (1) verify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for midstalk-rot resistance found in F3 families of the NDBLOSsel x CM625 population in recombinant inbred lines (RIL) derived from the same cross; (2) re-estimate their position and genetic effects; (3) draw inferences about the predictive quality of QTL for midstalk-rot resistance identified in the F3 families as compared to those in the RIL. Phenotypic data for three resistance (leaf lesion, stem lesion, and speed of fungal growth) and two morphological traits (leaf length and leaf length with petiole) were obtained from 317 RIL following artificial infection in field experiments across two environments. For genotyping the 248 RIL, we selected 41 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers based on their association with QTL for Sclerotinia midstalk-rot resistance in an earlier study. The resistance traits showed intermediate to high heritabilities (0.51 < h2 <0.79) and were significantly correlated with each other (0.45 < rg < 0.78). Genotypic correlations between F3 families and the RIL were highly significant and ranged between 0.50 for leaf length and 0.64 for stem lesion. For stem lesion, two genomic regions on linkage group (LG) 8 and LG16 explaining 26.5% of the genotypic variance for Sclerotinia midstalk-rot resistance were consistent across generations. For this trait, the genotypic correlation between the observed performance and its prediction based on QTL positions and effects in F3 families was surprisingly high (rg(MiF3, YiRIL). The genetic effects and predictive quality of these two QTL are promising for application in marker-assisted selection to Sclerotinia midstalk-rot resistance.