Genome-wide association study for morphological traits and resistance to Peryonella pinodes in the USDA pea single-plant plus collection

Authors: MARTINS, LAIS - North Carolina State University; Balint-Kurti, Peter; REBERG-HORTON, CHRIS - North Carolina State University

Submitted to: Genes, Genomes, and Genomics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/28/2022
Publication Date: 7/6/2022
Citation: Martins, L., Balint Kurti, P.J., Reberg-Horton, C. 2022. Genome-wide association study for morphological traits and resistance to Peryonella pinodes in the USDA pea single-plant plus collection. Genes, Genomes, and Genomics. 12(9):jkac168. https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkac168.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkac168

Interpretive Summary: Pea (Pisum sativum) is the second most cultivated pulse crop in the world and is used for human food, fodder, and as a cover crop. In this work we assessed a population of genetically diverse Pea lines. We measured several aspects of their growth (stem width, leaf size and stem length) as well as their resistance to Ascochyta blight - one of the most serious diseases of Pea worldwide. We showed that variation in all these traits was under significant genetic control. Among the traits, disease resistance displayed the most variation that could not be attributed to genetics. We used genetic mapping to identify regions of the genome that partially controlled variation in all these traits. These results will be helpful in the breeding of more disease-resilient pea cultivars.

Technical Abstract: Peas (Pisum sativum) is the second most cultivated pulse crop in the world. They can serve as human food, fodder, and cover crop. The most serious foliar disease of pea cultivars worldwide is Ascochyta blight, which can be caused by several pathogens. Of these, Peyronellaea pinodesis is the most aggressive and prevalent worldwide. Several traits, including resistance to Peyronellaea pinodes, stem diameter, internode length between nodes 2-3 and 5-6, and area of 7th leaf, were measured in 269 entries of the Pea Single Plant Plus Collection (SPPC). The heritability (H2) of the morphological traits was relatively high, while disease resistance had low heritability. Using 53,196 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) markers to perform a genome-wide association study to identify genomic loci associated with variation in all the traits measured, we identified 27 trait-locus associations, 5 of which were associated with more than one trait.