Mapping Environment-Specific Quantitative Trait Loci

Environment-specific quantitative trait loci (QTL) refer to QTL that express differently in different environments, a phenomenon called QTL-by-environment (Q × E) interaction. Q × E interaction is a difficult problem extended from traditional QTL mapping. The mixture model maximum-likelihood method is commonly adopted for interval mapping of QTL, but the method is not optimal in handling QTL interacting with environments. We partitioned QTL effects into main and interaction effects. The main effects are represented by the means of QTL effects in all environments and the interaction effects are represented by the variances of the QTL effects across environments. We used the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) implemented Bayesian method to estimate both the main and the interaction effects. The residual error covariance matrix was modeled using the factor analytic covariance structure. A simulation study showed that the factor analytic structure is robust and can handle other structures as special cases. The method was also applied to Q × E interaction mapping for the yield trait of barley. Eight markers showed significant main effects and 18 markers showed significant Q × E interaction. The 18 interacting markers were distributed across all seven chromosomes of the entire genome. Only 1 marker had both the main and the Q × E interaction effects. Each of the other markers had either a main effect or a Q × E interaction effect but not both.