Mapping QTLs controlling flowering date in Miscanthus sinensis Anderss

We have carried out QTL analyses for flowering date in a population of 89 F1 hybrids of M. sinensis from two years of field trial data. Five putative QTL were located using the Multiple QTL Model (MQM) approach and the program MapQTL 4.0, in a previous map of this species developed using the offspring cross mapping strategy. The QTL F12 was consistently detected over both years while the rest were detected in a single year. Fl1, Fl2 and Fl3 accounted for the 62.5% of the phenotypic variation in the first year while Fl2, Fl4 and Fl5 explained the 65% of this variation in 2001.