Similarly, protein content will improve simultaneously with no effect on starch content EPZ015666 supplier when a common QTL associated with oil and protein content on chromosome 6 is used to improve oil content. Therefore, different

strategies for improving oil, protein and starch can be applied by focusing on different QTL clusters in specific genomic regions. Nearly all unconditional QTL for oil, protein and starch content were not detected or showed reduced effects in conditional QTL mapping. This indicated strong genetic associations between these important components of maize kernels, consistent with the phenotypic correlations. These QTL may be involved in interactions among oil, protein and starch content, and could be valuable targets for resource marker-assisted breeding of maize varieties with specific kernel quality traits. We appreciate Dr. Jun Zhu from Zhejiang University for providing valuable suggestions in conditional mapping Selleckchem Roscovitine technology, and Dr. Robert McIntoch for the language editing. We gratefully acknowledge the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions. This study was financially supported by the National High Technology Research Program of China (No. 2012AA101104). “
“Lodging in cereal crops causes significant economic losses associated with reduced yields, quality, and harvesting efficiency. Previous studies showed that lodging

resistance was significantly correlated with some morphological and chemical characteristics Liothyronine Sodium [1], [2], [3], [4] and [5]. Solid stemmed wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

has thin but very hard stems, in which the stem pith is filled with solid materials. The morphological features of solid stemmed wheat suggest that it could be highly resistant to lodging. It is known that solid stemmed crop plants have increased resistance to damage from sawfly larvae, as the presence of solid pith impedes larval growth and migration [6]. Some wheat cultivars with high yield potential, such as Genou, Rampart, Choteau, Bynum, and Duclair, developed by Montana Agricultural Experimental Station, USA, have solid stems [7], [8], [9] and [10]. The hereditary characteristics of solid stem in durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf., 2n = 4x = 28) were simple, dominant, recessive or complex, depending on the manner in which studies were carried out and/or the genetic characteristics of the parental plants [11]. Cook et al. [12] reported four microsatellite markers linked to Qss.msub-3BL for stem characteristics in a double haploid winter wheat population derived from a cross between ‘Rampart’ (solid stem) and “Jerry” (hollow stem). However, few studies have investigated the anatomical features and chemical composition of solid stemmed wheat varieties. Such characteristics are potentially important for stem strength at physiological and anatomical levels.