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Abstract
Quantitative genetics has a long history in plants: It has been used to study specific
biological processes, identify the factors important for trait evolution, and breed
new crop varieties. These classical approaches to quantitative trait locus mapping
have naturally improved with technology. In this review, we show how quantitative
genetics has evolved recently in plants and how new developments in phenotyping, population
generation, sequencing, gene manipulation, and statistics are rejuvenating both the
classical linkage mapping approaches (for example, through nested association mapping)
as well as the more recently developed genome-wide association studies. These strategies
are complementary in most instances, and indeed, one is often used to confirm the
results of the other. Despite significant advances, an emerging trend is that the
outcome and efficiency of the different approaches depend greatly on the genetic architecture
of the trait in the genetic material under study.