Detection of Fusarium head blight marker-trait associations in a Canadian bread wheat panel using a single-locus GWAS model Abstract uri icon

abstract

  • Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat caused by the fungus Fusarium graminearium results in significant reductions in yield and grain quality due to the presence of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) in Fusarium damaged kernels (FDK). The quantitative nature of inheritance of FHB complicates efforts to pinpoint resistance loci and to identify locus-specific markers for marker-assisted selection (MAS). The objective of our study was to deploy a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) on a bread wheat association mapping panel (AMP) to identify FHB resistance marker-trait associations (MTAs) and further develop locus-specific markers for MAS of FHB resistance in breeding or germplasm development. An AMP comprising 192 Canadian spring wheat cultivars was genotyped with the Illumina 90K Infinium wheat SNP array, and assessed for FHB incidence and severity between 2015 and 2017 at the three Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada field sites Morden and Brandon in Manitoba, and Ottawa in Ontario. Genotypic data for 5,541 SNP markers, with physical map locations, and FHB disease phenotypic data were analyzed in a GWAS. A population genetic structure analysis revealed three clusters (K=3) or sub-populations within the AMP. GWAS was performed via a single-locus mixed linear model (MLM) using the Genome Association and Prediction Integrated Tool (GAPIT) in R. Manhattan plots generated from two Morden 2015 datasets revealed four significant genome-wide marker-trait associations (MTAs) for FHB incidence on chromosomes 2D and 3D and for FHB severity and FHB index on chromosome 3B. When all site-years were considered, a total of 242 SNP markers (R2=17%-26%) were significantly (P<0.05) associated with incidence, 264 (R2=19%-35%) with severity and 270 (R2=23%-36%) with index. The identified SNP markers associated with major resistance loci will be converted to allele-specific KASP markers and validated prior to being used for MAS of FHB resistance.

publication date

  • September 2022