Genome-wide association mapping identifies Yellow Rust resistance locus in Ethiopian Durum Wheat germplasm

Durum wheat is an important cereal grown in Ethiopia, a country which is also its center for genetic diversity. Yellow (stripe) rust caused by Puccinia striiformis fsp tritici is one of the most devastating diseases threatening Ethiopian wheat production. To identify sources of genetic resistance to combat this pathogen, we conducted a genome wide association study of yellow rust resistance on 300 durum wheat accessions comprising 261 landraces and 39 cultivars. The accessions were evaluated for their field resistance in an alpha lattice design (10 x 30) in two replications at Meraro, Kulumsa and Chefe-Donsa in the 2015 and 2016 main growing seasons. Disease Scoring was carried out using a modified Cobb scale and then converted to Coefficient of Infection (CI). Analysis of the 35K Axiom Array genotyping data resulted in a total of 8,797 polymorphic SNPs of which 7,093 were used in subsequent analyses. Population structure analysis suggested two groups in which the cultivars clearly stood out separately from the landraces. We identified twelve SNPs significantly associated with yellow rust resistance across four chromosomes (1A, 1B, 2B, and 7B). Six of the SNPs (AX-95171339, AX-94436448, AX-95238778, AX-95096041, AX-94730403 & AX-94427201), were consistently identified on chromosome 1B at the three field locations and combined across the six environments. The phenotypic variation (R2) explained by all six SNPs on chromosome 1B ranged from 63.7 - 65.4%. Locus-based analysis of phenotypic values between resistant and susceptible allele resulted in a significant difference at (p < 0.001). Further investigation across the genomic interval encompassing the identified loci indicated the presence of disease resistance protein (NBS-LRR class) family and RPM1 in the vicinity of the loci. This study provides SNPs for tracking the QTL associated with yellow rust resistance in durum wheat improvement programs.