2-1-2 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan
National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences
Junichi Yonemaru
E-mail : qtaro ad
This is a database of Rice QTL information extracted from published research papers.
From 1214 reports, we selected 5096 QTLs. The positions of these QTLs were estimated from the physical positions of either two flanking markers (the genomic positions of the distal ends of the two markers) or a co-segregated single marker (between the start and end positions on the genome). If the QTLs were isolated by map-based cloning, the position of the BAC/PAC clone or gene locus was used. By screening for redundancy of traits at the same physical positions, as of March 31 of 2008, we selected 1051 QTLs extracted from 463 reports as representative QTLs. To arrange QTL information, we constructed QTL database (QTL Annotation Rice Online database; Q-TARO, http://qtaro.abr.affrc.go.jp/) consists of two web interfaces. One interface is a table containing information on the mapping of each QTL and its genetic parameters. The other interface is a genome viewer for viewing genomic locations of the QTLs. Currently, update of QTL information is not continued.
Over the past two decades, genetic dissection of complex phenotypes of economic and biological interest has revealed the chromosomal locations of many quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in rice and their contributions to phenotypic variation. Mapping resolution has varied considerably among QTL studies, owing to differences in population size and number of DNA markers used. Additionally, the same QTLs have often been reported with different locus designations. This situation has made it difficult to determine allelic relationships among QTLs and to compare their positions. To facilitate reliable comparisons of rice QTLs, we extracted QTL information from published research papers and constructed a database of 1051 representative QTLs, which we classified into 21 trait categories. Q-TARO clearly displays the co-localization of QTLs and distribution of QTL clusters on the rice genome.
This work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (Integrated Research Project for Plant, Insect and Animal using Genome Technology, QT-1006, and Genomics for Agricultural Innovation, GIR-1003).