Identification of candidate gene associated with maize northern leaf blight resistance in a multi-parent population

QTL mapping combined with genome-wide association studies, revealed a potential candidate gene for  resistance to northern leaf blight in the tropical CATETO-related maize line YML226, providing a basis for marker-assisted selection of maize varieties Northern leaf blight (NLB) is a foliar disease that can cause severe yield losses in maize. Identifying and utilizing NLB-resistant genes is the most effective way to prevent and control this disease. In this study, five important inbred lines of maize were used as parental lines to construct a multi-parent population for the identification of NLB-resistant loci. QTL mapping and GWAS analysis revealed that QTL qtl_YML226_1, which had the largest phenotypic variance explanation (PVE) of 9.28%, and SNP 5-49,193,921 were co-located in the CATETO-related line YML226. This locus was associated with the candidate gene Zm00001d014471, which encodes a pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) protein. In the coding region of Zm00001d014471, YML226 had more specific SNPs than the other parental lines. qRT-PCR showed that the relative expressions of Zm00001d014471 in inoculated and uninoculated leaves of YML226 were significantly higher, indicating that the expression of the candidate gene was correlated with NLB resistance. The analysis showed that the higher expression level in YML226 might be caused by SNP mutations. This study identified NLB resistance candidate loci and genes in the tropical maize inbred line YML226 derived from the CATETO germplasm, thereby providing a theoretical basis for using modern marker-assisted breeding techniques to select genetic resources resistant to NLB.