abstract
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Wheat is consumed as staple food worldwide. It is generally grown in soils which suffer with low phosphorous (P). Over the years, wheat plants have developed several adaptive mechanisms required to increase the acquisition and utilization under P-deficient conditions. A number of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for tolerance to low P have been identified in wheat which generally have a long confidence interval (CI), thereby limiting their utilization for marker-assisted selection (MAS) for developing P-efficient wheat. Therefore, identification of more precise metaQTLs (MQTLs) having small CI could prove useful for use in MAS. In the present study, we identified 53 MQTLs using P-deficiency responsive 443 QTLs controlling 62 traits located on the 21 chromosomes (except 3D and 4D); these QTLs were reported in 12 previous studies. The number of MQTLs on individual chromosomes ranged from 1 to 4 and that on the three sub-genomes their distribution ranged from 12 (D sub-genome) to 21 (B sub-genomes), with A sub-genome carrying 20 MQTLs. Individual MQTLs carried 2 to 77 original QTLs controlling 2-26 traits. Mean R2 (PVE %) for individual MQTLs ranged from 5% to 21.33% with their CI ranging from 0.01 cM to 9.34 cM. Surprisingly, only a solitary MQTL (out of 53 MQTLs) overlapped a marker-trait association (MTA) reported in genome-wide association studies. A total of 1,072 candidate genes (CGs) were retrieved from genome sequences associated with MQTLs. These CGs are mainly involved in signal transduction and several metabolic pathways. The important CGs/MQTLs could be utilized through marker assisted selection (MAS) to develop P-efficient wheat cultivars.