Comparative analysis of QTLs affecting plant height and maturity across the Poaceae, in reference to an interspecific sorghum population.

Correspondence among QTLs affecting height and/or flowering was investigated across the five races of sorghum, an interspecific sorghum F2 population, and 32 previously published sorghum, maize, rice, wheat, and barley populations revealing 185 QTLs or discrete mutants. Among nine QTLs mapped in the interspecific sorghum population (six affecting height and three affecting flowering), at least seven (78%) are associated with "conversion," backcross-introgression of alleles imparting reduced height or earlier flowering from cultivated sorghums into one or more exotic Sorghum bicolor races. One chromosomal region was "converted" in all S. bicolar races--in the interspecific F2, this region explained 54.8% of height variation (putatively the Dw2 gene) and 85.7% of flowering time variation (putatively Ma1). Comparative data suggest that Ma1 and Dw2 orthologs influence height and flowering of other Poaceae taxa and support classical dogma that the sorghum phenotypes attributed to Ma1 and Dw2 (respectively) are due to different genetic loci. Other sorghum QTLs also showed correspondence with those in other Poaceae, more frequently than would be expected by chance. Possible homoeologous QTLs were found within both the maize and sorghum genomes. Comparative QTL mapping provides a means to unify, and thereby simplify, molecular analysis of complex phenotypes.