Study of co-localization of QTL for drought tolerance of morphological traits in teosinte introgressed maize population

Maize crops cultivated in diverse agro-climatic conditions and frequently exposed to drought stress. Teosinte (Z. mays ssp. parviglumis), maize is wild progenitor and it is a rich source of biotic and abiotic stress tolerance genes. In the present study, BC₁F₂ teosinte introgressed mapping populations were developed by using teosinte and DI-103. Total 203 lines of BC₁F₂ were evaluated for twenty-five morpho-physiological traits associated with drought tolerance. A total of 71 superior lines were identified based on drought associated traits. Further, these 71 lines were genotype by 43 polymorphic SSR primers and diversity analysis divided these lines into 15 groups of clustered with 0.40 Jaccard similarity coefficients. Phenotypic and genotypic data were used for QTL mapping for drought tolerance and total 80 QTLs were identified for 25 phenotypic traits. Out of 80 QTLs, three QTLs explained phenotypic variation of 14.67 (leaf rolling), 12.84 (plant height) percent both linked with the marker umc1303 and 11.79 (anthesis-silking interval) percent linked with the marker phi113. Twenty-three QTLs controlling multiple traits for drought tolerance, and contributing traits were co-localized. Hence, traits linked and co-localized markers for drought-tolerance traits could be used for MAS for development of drought-tolerant maize.