Genome‐wide association study of differences in 14 agronomic traits under low‐ and high‐density planting models based on the 660k SNP array for common wheat

Abstract

AbstractOne hundred and ninety‐seven wheat accessions from Yellow and Huai Winter Wheat Region (YHW) were evaluated for differences of 14 agronomic traits under low‐ and high‐density plantings. Compared with the high‐density plantings, plant height, neck length, uppermost internode length, flag leaf angle and number of sterile spikelets under the low‐density plantings reduced, while heading date, flowering date, flag leaf length and width, spike length, number of fertile spikelets, grain number per spike, thousand‐kernel weight and grain weight per spike increased. A total of 1,118 markers were detected based on GWAS, and seven QTLs were confirmed. One QTL on chromosomes 5BL and two other QTLs on 5Dl were all tightly associated with flowering date difference. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that two haploblocks in 5Dl were involved, and the Vrn‐D1 locus was located in this interval. A region on chromosome 5B at around 531.5 Mb was significantly associated with plant height difference. Two QTLs including AX‐94840438 (7BL) and AX‐94563647 (7DS) were responsible for neck length or uppermost internode length difference.