doi: bioRxiv preprint crossover pathways that rely on the activity of FANCM, RECQ4 and FIGL1, respectively. RECQ4 appears to be the most important anti-crossover factor, as the mutation of the corresponding genes (RECQ4A and RECQ4B) led to an almost fourfold increase in recombination in Arabidopsis hybrids 2,10 . RECQ4 is a DNA helicase homologue of mammalian BLOOM and yeast Sgs1 11,12 . FANCM, which encodes another conserved DNA helicase, is also an important anti-crossover factor in Arabidopsis. Mutation of this gene also leads to a large increase in recombination, but only in pure lines (~3-fold) with a very limited effect in hybrids 2,3,5,13 . FANCM was also shown to limit crossovers in a Brassica rapa pure line 14 . The third pathway depends on the AAA-ATPase FIGL1. Mutation in FIGL1 alone leads to a relatively modest increase in recombination (+25% in Arabidopsis hybrids), but when combined with recq4 2 it leads to an almost eight-fold increase. Mutation in FIGL1 leads to full sterility in rice 15 , raising doubts about the pertinence of manipulating this gene in crop species.Here we tested the effect of recq4, fancm and figl1 mutations on recombination in three crop species. We chose rice (Oryza sativa), the cultivated pea (Pisum sativum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersium) for their economic importance and because they represent distant clades. Indeed they are members of the three major clades of flowering plants, monocots, eudicots rosids and eudicots asterids, respectively 16 . Rice is the staple of more than half of mankind and as such is the number one cereal consumed. It belongs to the Poaceae family that also contains maize, wheat and barley 16 . Pea, in addition to be the genetic model used by Mendel, is the second most cultivated pulse crop in the world (http://faostat.fao.org/) and belongs to the Fabaceae family that contains many crop species such as chickpea, beans and lentil.Tomato, the second most cultivated fresh-market vegetable crop, is one of the most .

Pea is one of the most important grain legume crops in temperate regions worldwide. Improving pea yield is a critical breeding target. Nine inter-connected pea recombinant inbred line populations were evaluated in nine environments at INRAE Dijon, France and genotyped using the GenoPea 13.2 K SNP array. Each population has been evaluated in two to four environments. A multi-population Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) analysis for seed weight per plant (SW), seed number per plant (SN), thousand seed weight (TSW) and seed protein content (SPC) was done. QTL were then projected on the multi-population consensus map and a meta-analysis of QTL was performed. This analysis identified 17 QTL for SW, 16 QTL for SN, 35 QTL for TSW and 21 QTL for SPC, shedding light on trait relationships. These QTL were resolved into 27 metaQTL. Some of them showed small confidence intervals of less than 2 cM encompassing less than one hundred underlying candidate genes. The precision of metaQTL and the potential candidate genes reported in this study enable their use for marker-assisted selection and provide a foundation towards map-based identification of causal polymorphisms.

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