A Preliminary Study of Mapping Genes Underlying Complex Traits Based on Chromosome Segment Substitution Lines

Complex traits are the features whose properties are determined by multiple factors, which can be genetic or environmental. Most of economically important characteristics of plants and animals belong to this special catego-

Complex traits are the features whose properties are determined by multiple factors, which can be genetic or environmental. Most of economically important characteristics of plants and animals belong to this special category. Hence, identification of genes underlying complex traits is theoretical and applied important. However, the conventional mapping populations with complex genetic background pose major challenge to distinguish the single QTL responsible for phenotypic variation. Paterson et al. （1990） pioneered the research on fine mapping of QTL by substitution mapping method. Nadeau et al. （2000） discussed the construction, applications and advantages of chromosome segment substitution （CSS） lines for dissecting complex traits. Indeed, CSS lines with the controlled genetic noise from genome background are ideal material for studying individual QTL as a Mendelian factor. In flee, CSS lines have been created for QTL fine mapping and further functional research （Ebitani et al., 2005; Xi et al., 2006）.