Genome-wide association analysis of salinity tolerance-related loci in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) at the germination stage

Abstract

Wheat is the most important food crop worldwide with second rank next to maize in total production. It's production has to be increased by 70% to feed the rocket shooting wold population by 2050.But the production of wheat was challenged by salinity stress and lead to loss of about 50% products. Improving the germination performance of bread wheat under salinity stress is the basic mechanism to solve the product loss and enhance breeding strategies in wheat. Hence, the present study aimed to identify salt tolerance genes and genomic loci related to germination performance under salinity stress in wheat, providing insights into salinity-responsive pathways and candidate genes to support future breeding strategies for improved salt tolerance at early developmental stages. To obtain this target Genome wide association study was performed on 154 Ethiopian bread wheat genotypes. Three groups of bread wheat were identified under salt stress as tolerant, moderate tolerant and sensitive. Based on this a total of 31 QTNs were revealed through GWAS analysis. Finally 10 functional genes were identified and annotated as functional genes to determine their effects on germination performance traits. Most of the genes were involved in transcription regulation, carbohydrate metabolism, immune response and cell cycle regulation and stress signalling. The germination trait based phenotyping of the genotypes, revealed QTNs and candidate genes, mechanism of action identified during annotation with respect to function increase the understanding for better germination performance of bread wheat under salt stress.