Jérôme Morice, Christine Bissuel-Belaygue, Mathieu Rousseau-Gueutin, Olivier Maes, Jean-Eric Dheu, Pierre George, Florent Guinot, Anne-Sophie Bouchet, Xavier Pinochet, Damien Dugué, Cécile Baron, Nathalie Nesi, Anne Laperche, Thomas Foubert, Institut de Génétique, Environnement et Protection des Plantes (IGEPP), AGROCAMPUS OUEST-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Groupe Limagrain, Biogemma, Terres Inovia, Euralis Semences, Maïsadour Semences, Rouergue Auvergne Gévaudan Tarnais, Syngenta, French National Research Agency (ANR) [ANR-07-GPLA-016], program 'Investments for the Future' [ANR-11-BTBR-0004], Ministere de l'Enseignement Superieur et de la Recherche, Laperche, Anne, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-AGROCAMPUS OUEST, Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Rennes (UR)-AGROCAMPUS OUEST, and ANR-11-BTBR-0004,RAPSODYN,Optimisation de la teneur et du rendement en huile chez le colza cultivé sous contrainte azotée(2011)
Background Nitrogen use efficiency is an important breeding trait that can be modified to improve the sustainability of many crop species used in agriculture. Rapeseed is a major oil crop with low nitrogen use efficiency, making its production highly dependent on nitrogen input. This complex trait is suspected to be sensitive to genotype × environment interactions, especially genotype × nitrogen interactions. Therefore, phenotyping diverse rapeseed populations under a dense network of trials is a powerful approach to study nitrogen use efficiency in this crop. The present study aimed to determine the quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with yield in winter oilseed rape and to assess the stability of these regions under contrasting nitrogen conditions for the purpose of increasing nitrogen use efficiency. Results Genome-wide association studies and linkage analyses were performed on two diversity sets and two doubled-haploid populations. These populations were densely genotyped, and yield-related traits were scored in a multi-environment design including seven French locations, six growing seasons (2009 to 2014) and two nitrogen nutrition levels (optimal versus limited). Very few genotype × nitrogen interactions were detected, and a large proportion of the QTL were stable across nitrogen nutrition conditions. In contrast, strong genotype × trial interactions in which most of the QTL were specific to a single trial were found. To obtain further insight into the QTL × environment interactions, genetic analyses of ecovalence were performed to identify the genomic regions contributing to the genotype × nitrogen and genotype × trial interactions. Fifty-one critical genomic regions contributing to the additive genetic control of yield-associated traits were identified, and the structural organization of these regions in the genome was investigated. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that the effect of the trial was greater than the effect of nitrogen nutrition levels on seed yield-related traits under our experimental conditions. Nevertheless, critical genomic regions associated with yield that were stable across environments were identified in rapeseed. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-016-0432-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.