A major QTL controlling deep rooting on rice chromosome 4.

Drought is the most serious abiotic stress that hinders rice production under rainfed conditions. Breeding for deep rooting is a promising strategy to improve the root system architecture in shallow-rooting rice cultivars to avoid drought stress. We analysed the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for the ratio of deep rooting (RDR) in three F₂ mapping populations derived from crosses between each of three shallow-rooting varieties ('ARC5955', 'Pinulupot1', and 'Tupa729') and a deep-rooting variety, 'Kinandang Patong'. In total, we detected five RDR QTLs on chromosomes 2, 4, and 6. In all three populations, QTLs on chromosome 4 were found to be located at similar positions; they explained from 32.0% to 56.6% of the total RDR phenotypic variance. This suggests that one or more key genetic factors controlling the root growth angle in rice is located in this region of chromosome 4.