GENETIC DETERMINISM OF DELTA-3-CARENE IN MARITIME PINE USING RAPD MARKERS

An F-2 progeny of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Aiton) was used to inv estigate the mode of inheritance of delta 3-carene using a quantitativ e and a qualitative approach. A previously reported genetic map constr ucted with random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers made it pos sible to locate one major quantitative trait locus (QTL) accounting fo r most of the phenotypic variation of this trait on linkage group 5. I n the qualitative approach, the ''C'' locus that controls the relative quantity of delta 3-carene (C+ for the richness allele and C- for the poorness allele) was found to be strongly associated with RAPD marker s in the same genomic region of linkage group 5. The colocation betwee n the QTL and the ''C'' locus suggests that a major gene or closely li nked loci affect the variation in delta 3-carene expression.