A review of genetic mapping of root depth in rice

Rice (Oryza sativa. L) is considered one of the most important cereal crops for human nutrition. It is required that rice production more than doubles to feed this growing population. To achieve that, better understanding of the root system will be required. It is very complex work to dissect specific genes which control the root structure variation due to the high adaptive plasticity of root development and the practical difficulty in phenotyping root traits and this represents a bottleneck for the efficient selection of specific root ideotypes. The main focus of this review is comparative evaluation of genetic mapping of rooting depth in rice based on QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) study. Moreover, we will review the shortcomings and benefits of current genetic mapping procedure, as well as the future study to overcome these shortcomings.