QTL analysis.

The study of the intraspecific natural variation existing in Arabidopsis provides a useful resource for the dissection of its genome at the functional, ecological, and evolutionary levels. A major step in these studies is the identification and location of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) determining the variation for trait(s) of interest, so-called QTL analysis. Here we provide general methods to achieve this goal, including (1) the selection of wild accessions that can serve as parental lines for QTL mapping; (2) the development of mapping populations; (3) the construction of the required genome-wide linkage maps of the populations; and (4) the mapping and characterization of QTLs affecting the trait(s).