Abstract Background Rice (Oryza sativa) and Arabidopsis thaliana have been widely used
as model systems to understand how plants control flowering time in response to …

Key message Integration of previous Mendelian genetic analyses and recent molecular
genomics approaches, such as linkage mapping and QTL cloning, dramatically …

Seed shape and size are among the most important agronomic traits because they affect
yield and market price. To obtain accurate seed size data, a large number of measurements …

Flowering adaptability of cultivars to growth conditions should be one of the most important
targets in crop domestication and selection. We report here the positional cloning of a major …

The alteration of photoperiod sensitivity has let breeders diversify flowering time in O ryza
sativa (rice) and develop cultivars adjusted to a range of growing season periods. Map …

Koshihikari, a Japanese short-grain rice cultivar, was developed in 1956, more than 60
years ago. Despite its age, it has been the most widely grown cultivar in Japan for more than …

Flowering time of rice depends strongly on photoperiodic responses. We previously
identified a quantitative trait locus, Heading date 17 (Hd17), that is associated with a …

Food shortages have once again become a serious problem, not only because of world
population growth but also as a result of escalating demand for crops as a substrate for …

Background To create useful gene combinations in crop breeding, it is necessary to clarify
the dynamics of the genome composition created by breeding practices. A large quantity of …

Identification of stable quantitative trait loci (QTLs) across different environments and
mapping populations is a prerequisite for marker-assisted selection (MAS) for cotton yield …