QTL mapping for grain yield conditioned on its component traits in two RIL populations of bread wheat

Grain yield (GY) and yield components (YC) were investigated using two F8: 9 RILs, comprising 229 and 485 lines, respectively. A conditional analysis was conducted to generate conditional values for GY independent of each YC. Then both unconditional and conditional values were analyzed to map QTLs with additive effect. In both RILs, up to 23 unconditional and conditional QTLs were detected. However, only two QTLs were identified repeatedly among environments. All QTLs, except for 4 detected in unconditional mapping, were also identified as conditional QTLs, whereas a number of QTLs were additionally detected in conditional mapping. The number of QTLs detected that affected GY was different with respect to component-special influences. Our results revealed that the contributions of YC influencing QTL expression related to GY differed