Association mapping of rust resistance in pre-green revolution wheat accessions

Abstract

Association mapping detects correlations between genotypes and phenotypes in a sample of individuals based on the linkage disequilibrium and can be used to uncover new genetic variation among germplasm collections. Two hundred and five landraces collected by the English botanist A. Watkins in the 1920s were screened for rust response variation under field conditions during three crop seasons. An integrated map of 350 polymorphic DArT markers was developed. Association mapping identified the involvement of several genomic regions in controlling resistance to three rust diseases. Seven, eight and nine genomic regions, respectively, appeared to carry yet uncharacterized leaf rust, stripe rust and stem rust resistance. Three dimensional analyses indicated genetic association of leaf rust and stripe rust resistance in some accessions, whereas no such association was observed between stem rust resistance and resistance to either of the other two rust diseases. A new stripe rust resistance locus, Yr47, has been named