Genetic characterization of a multiparent recombinant inbred line of rice population

The field experiment was conducted at test base in Department of Agronomy, Yangtze University and Rice Research Institute of Guangdong, Academy of Agricultural Sciences, during 2010–11 to study the genetic characterization of a multiparent recombinant inbred line rice population. Multi-parent advanced generation inter-cross (MAGIC) population can be used to dissect complex agronomic traits by both linkage and association mapping. In this study, we report the development of the first rice MAGIC population with 12 founder lines. A subset of 206 lines of the MAGIC population was analyzed with SSR markers. The results indicated that plentiful recombination types were detected in the MAGIC population. Cluster analysis showed that the 12 founder and 206 lines were divided into 11 and 64 groups, respectively, when the genetic similarity coefficient was 0.685. Single-marker analysis detected 13 and 25 SSR markers associated with plant height and heading date, respectively. Step-wise regression further confirmed that 5 and 11 of the markers were associated with plant height and heading date, respectively. Seven and 11 of the identified markers had been reported previously to be linked to plant height and heading date QTLs, respectively. The results showed that MAGIC populations had abundant genetic diversity and could be efficiently used to study multi-alleles and association analysis.