Genome-Wide Association Studies and Prediction of Tan Spot (Pyrenophoratritici-repentis) Infection in European Winter...

Tan spot, caused by the fungus Pyrenophoratritici-repentis (Ptr), is a severe foliar disease of wheat (Triticumaestivum L.). Improving genetic resistance is a durable strategy to reduce Ptr-related losses. Here, we dissected Ptr-infection's genetic basis in 372 European wheat varieties via single sequence repeats (SSR) in addition to 35k and 90k single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker platforms. In our phenotypic data analyses, Ptr infection showed a significant genotypic variance and a significant negative correlation with plant height. Genome-wide association studies revealed a highly quantitative nature of Ptr infection and identified two quantitative trait loci (QTL), viz., QTs.ipk-7A and QTs.ipk-7B, which imparted 21.23 and 5.84% of the genotypic variance, respectively. Besides, the Rht-D1 gene showed a strong allelic influence on the resistance scores. Due to the complex genetic nature of the Ptr infection, the potential of genome-wide prediction (GP) was assessed via three different genetic models on individual and combined marker platforms. The GP results indicated that the marker density and marker platforms do not considerably impact prediction accuracy (~40-42%) and that higher-order epistatic interactions may not be highly pervasive. Our results provide a further understanding of Ptr-infection's genetic nature, serve as a resource for marker-assisted breeding, and highlight the potential of genome-wide selection for improved Ptr resistance.