Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Aberdeen, Idaho » Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #409824
Research Project: Enhancing Barley and Oat Productivity, Quality, and Stress Resistance

Location: Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research

Title: Identifying genomic regions associated with key agro-morphological traits in soft red winter wheat using genome-wide association study

Author
item SUBEDI, MADHAV - University Of Georgia
item BAGWELL, JOHN - University Of Georgia
item GHIMIRE, BIKASH - University Of Georgia
item LOPEZ, BENJAMIN - University Of Georgia
item Sapkota, Suraj
item BABAR, MD. ALI - University Of Florida
item MERGOUM, MOHAMED - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/10/2024
Publication Date: 5/19/2024
Citation: Subedi, M., Bagwell, J.W., Ghimire, B., Lopez, B., Sapkota, S., Babar, M., Mergoum, M. 2024. Identifying genomic regions associated with key agro-morphological traits in soft red winter wheat using genome-wide association study. Crop Science. 64:2316–2335. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.21261.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.21261

Interpretive Summary: Wheat is a major food crop contributing about 20% of calories to the human population worldwide. Therefore, increasing wheat yield is a global priority for food security. Wheat yield is a multifaceted trait influenced by many agro-morphological traits such as plant height, heading date, and flag leaf characters. Genetic studies on agro-morphological traits is necessary to increase our understanding on how these traits affect wheat yield. In this study, a diverse set of soft red winter wheat (SRWW) were evaluated for eight agro-morphological traits, and marker-trait association study was performed using single nucleotide polymorphic markers. Markers associated with the agro-morphological traits were found on all wheat chromosomes. The discovery from this study provides foundation for further genetic analysis and markers associated with agro-morphological traits could be useful for marker-assisted selection to breed SRWW for improved yield potential.

Technical Abstract: Agro-morphological traits play a significant role in the adaptation of wheat to diverse agroecosystems. Genetic understanding of these traits is crucial to develop cultivars adapted to specific environments and maximize their productivity. This is a comprehensive genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 230 diverse lines of soft red winter wheat for identifying quantitative trait loci (QTLs) related to eight key agro-morphological traits. The diversity panel was evaluated in two locations for three consecutive years (2020-2023). A total of 150 significant marker-trait associations were detected, including 65 for three flag leaf traits, 35 for peduncle length, 33 for plant height, 16 for heading date, and one for plant vigor using 27,466 SNP markers. Eleven high-confidence major-effect QTLs explaining greater than 10% phenotypic variance were detected, of which seven were stable, and one showed association with plant height and peduncle length. QTLs possibly allelic for important dwarfing (Rht23) and vernalization (Vrn-B1) genes were identified. Six QTLs, QFlw.uga-1A, QPdl.uga-1A, QFlw.uga-2B.2, QPdl.uga-5A, QPdl.uga-7A, and QPht.uga-7B, are presumed to be novel and nearby candidate gene(s) were identified for all except QPdl.uga-1A. The pyramiding of favorable alleles from major-effect QTLs was found to have significant improvement in peduncle length (shortened by 5cm), flag leaf width (increased by 0.18 cm), and plant height (shortened by 11 cm). This study has improved our genetic understanding of important agro-morphological traits. These results, upon further validation, can be used in breeding for desirable plant architecture to improve wheat yield potential.