Two decades of association mapping: Insights on disease resistance in major crops

Authors: GANGURDE, SUNIL - University Of Georgia; XAVIER, ALENCAR - Purdue University; NAIK, YOGESH - Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University; JHA, UDAY - Indian Council Of Agricultural Research (ICAR); RANGARI, SAGAR - Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University; KUMAR, RAJ - Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University; CHANNALE, SONAL - University Of Southern Queensland; ELANGO, DINAKARAN - Iowa State University; ROUF MIR, REYAZUL - Sher-E- Kashmir University Of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Of Jammu; PANDEY, MANISH - International Crops Research Institute For Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) - India; PUNNURI, SOMASHEKHAR - Fort Valley State University; MENDU, VENUGOPAL - Montana State University; REDDY, UMESH - West Virginia State University; Guo, Baozhu; GANGARAO, N.V.P.R. - International Maize & Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT); SHARMA, VINAY - Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University; WANG, XINGJUN - Shandong Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; ZHAO, CHUANZHI - Shandong Academy Of Agricultural Sciences; THUDI, MAHENDAR - Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University

Submitted to: Frontiers in Plant Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/10/2022
Publication Date: 12/6/2022
Citation: Gangurde, S., Xavier, A., Naik, Y., Jha, U., Rangari, S., Kumar, R., Channale, S., Elango, D., Rouf Mir, R., Pandey, M., Punnuri, S., Mendu, V., Reddy, U., Guo, B., Gangarao, N., Sharma, V., Wang, X., Zhao, C., Thudi, M. 2022. Two decades of association mapping: Insights on disease resistance in major crops. Frontiers in Plant Science. 13:1064059. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.1064059.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.1064059

Interpretive Summary: Plant diseases are serious threat to global food safety and security. The disease severities have been increased due to climate change. Conventional disease management strategies like chemical control have been important in preventing crop yield losses, but the pesticide application also leads to other concerns such as environment pollution and increased production cost. Over the last two decades, advances in biotechnology and next-generation genome sequencing enable more genome sequences of crops as well as pathogens available to scientific community for crop improvement and development of disease control strategies. This report provides a summary of advancement made in crop genomic research and trait mapping for application in molecular breeding. Further discussion is focusing on future association studies using multi-parent populations and the challenges and opportunities for breeding disease resistant cultivars.

Technical Abstract: Climate change across the globe has an impact on the occurrence, prevalence, and severity of plant diseases. About 30% of yield losses in major crops are due to plant diseases; emerging diseases are likely to worsen the sustainable production in the coming years. Plant diseases have led to increased hunger and mass migration of human populations in the past, thus a serious threat to global food security. Equipping the modern varieties and hybrids with enhanced genetic resistance is the most economic, sustainable, and environmentally friendly solution. Plant geneticist have done tremendous work in identifying stable resistance in primary gene pools and many times other than primary gene pools to breed resistant varieties in different major crops. Over the last two decades, the availability of crop and pathogen genomes due to advances in next generation sequencing technologies improved our understanding of trait genetics using different approaches. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been effectively used to identify candidate genes and map loci associated with different diseases in crop plants. In this review, we highlight successful examples for the discovery of resistance genes to many important diseases. In addition, major developments in association studies, statistical models and bioinformatic tools that improve the power, resolution, and the efficiency of identifying marker-trait associations, statistical basis of genome screening was also discussed in detail. Overall, this review provides comprehensive insights into the two decades of advances in GWAS studies and discusses the challenges and opportunities this research area provides for breeding resistant varieties.