\Chromosome 3A of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L,) cultivar 'Wichita' (WI
) was previously found to differ from that of 'Cheyenne' (CNN) for genes af
fecting a number of agronomically important traits such as grain yield (GYL
D), kernel number spike(-1) (KPS), 1000-kernel weight (TKWT), spike number
m(-1) (SPSM), grain, volume weight (GVWT), plant height (PHT), and anthesis
date (influenced by Eps locus). This study was designed to map the Eps loc
us and to identify regions of chromosome 3A of wheat associated with agrono
mic traits, A population of 3A recombinant inbred chromosome lines (RICLs-3
A) was previously evaluated in replicated field trials, Thirteen RFLPs and
one morphological marker locus, Eps, were used to develop a genetic linkage
map and to identify QTLs associated with agronomic traits, Individual loci
explained from 8.9 to 38.2% of the total phenotypic variation for the meas
ured traits. The major locus Eps was mapped distal to an RFLP marker locus
Xcdo549 on the short arm of chromosome 3A and explained 38.2% of the total
phenotypic variation for PHT, and 17.4% for both KPS and TKWT. Additional Q
TLs for PHT, TKWT, and KPS were identified on the chromosome. A QTL for SPS
M on the long arm of chromosome 3A was tightly linked to QTL for PHT and KP
S, QTLs fur GYLD were identified only in a few individual environments wher
eas no QTL was detected for GVWT, No epistasis was detected between markers
associated with QTLs, The QTLs identified across environments were consist
ent in all or most environments, hence should be useful in future marker as
sisted selection programs for breeding wheat cultivars.