GWAS analysis revealed wheat growth characteristics and yield-related genes in the Yellow River Basin
Weijun Zhang, Jinshang He, Xiaoliang Wang, Ling Kang, Yan Dong, Lina Cao, Fuguo Zhang, Dongsheng Chen
Abstract: Wheat is the main food crop in the Yellow River Basin of Northwest China. To explore the genetic mechanisms of wheat yield traits and identify related candidate genes, 250 varieties were studied. Genotyping was performed with the wheat 90K SNP chip, and genome-wide association analysis was carried out through multiple models. A total of 335 SNPs were significantly associated with yield-related traits, and 75 markers were simultaneously detected in at least 2 models. Of the 73 candidate genes screened, 4 had been reported in previous studies, and 69 were new. Among the significantly associated loci, 53 loci were significantly associated with multiple wheat traits, and a 5A_B1_Hap2 dominant haplotype was identified that can simultaneously regulate spikelet number, spikelet weight, thousand-grain weight, and effective tiller. This study provides effective loci for molecular marker-assisted selection breeding of wheat and cloning of yield-related trait genes.