Association mapping of agronomic traits on chromosome 2A of wheat

• DOI: 10.1007/s10709-009-9351-5
• Publication Date: 2009-01-22T01:51:01Z
• Authors: Ji Yao; Lixin Wang; Lihua Liu; Changping Zhao; Yonglian Zheng
• Keywords: Genetic Markers; Polyploidy; 2. Zero hunger; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Quantitative Trait Loci; Genetic Variation; Chromosomes, Plant; Linkage Disequilibrium; Triticum; Genome-Wide Association Study

Association mapping is a method to test the association between molecular markers and quantitative trait loci (QTL) based on linkage disequilibrium (LD). In this study, the collection of 108 wheat germplasm accessions form China were evaluated for their plant heights, spike length, spikelets per spike, grains per spike, thousand kernel weight and spikelets density in 3 years at three locations. And they were genotyped with 85 SSR markers and 40 EST-SSR markers. The population structure was inferred on the basis of unlinked 48 SSR markers and 40 EST-SSR markers. The extent of LD on chromosome 2A was 2.3 cM. Association of 37 SSR loci on chromosomes 2A with six agronomic traits was analysed with a mixed linear model. A total of 14 SSR loci were significantly associated with agronomic traits. Some of the associated markers were located in the QTL region detected in previous linkage mapping analysis. Our results demonstrated that association mapping can enhance QTL information and achieves higher resolution with short LD extent.