Agro‐morphological traits play a significant role in the adaptation of wheat to diverse agroecosystems. Genetic understanding of these traits is crucial to develop cultivars adapted to specific environments and maximize their productivity. This is a comprehensive genome‐wide association study (GWAS) of 230 diverse lines of soft red winter wheat for identifying quantitative trait loci (QTLs) related to eight key agro‐morphological traits. The diversity panel was evaluated in two locations for three consecutive years (2020–2023). A total of 150 significant marker–trait associations were detected, including 65 for three flag leaf traits, 35 for peduncle length, 33 for plant height, 16 for heading date, and one for plant vigor using 27,466 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Eleven high‐confidence major‐effect QTLs explaining greater than 10% phenotypic variance were detected, of which seven were stable, and one showed an association with plant height and peduncle length. QTLs possibly allelic for important dwarfing (Rht23) and vernalization (Vrn‐B1) genes were identified. Six QTLs, QFlw.uga‐1A, QPdl.uga‐1A, QFlw.uga‐2B.2, QPdl.uga‐5A, QPdl.uga‐7A, and QPht.uga‐7B, are presumed to be novel, and nearby candidate gene(s) were identified for all except QPdl.uga‐1A. The pyramiding of favorable alleles from major‐effect QTLs was found to have significant improvement in peduncle length (shortened by 5 cm), flag leaf width (increased by 0.18 cm), and plant height (shortened by 11 cm). This study has improved our genetic understanding of important agro‐morphological traits. These results, upon further validation, can be used in breeding for desirable plant architecture to improve wheat yield potential.

中文翻译：

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利用全基因组关联研究鉴定与软红冬小麦关键农业形态性状相关的基因组区域


农业形态性状在小麦适应不同农业生态系统方面发挥着重要作用。对这些性状的遗传理解对于开发适应特定环境的品种并最大限度地提高其生产力至关重要。这是一项针对 230 个不同品系的软红冬小麦的综合全基因组关联研究 (GWAS)，旨在鉴定与八个关键农业形态性状相关的数量性状基因座 (QTL)。多样性小组连续三年（2020-2023 年）在两个地点进行了评估。使用 27,466 个单核苷酸多态性 (SNP) 标记，总共检测到 150 个显着标记-性状关联，其中 65 个与三个旗叶性状相关，35 个与花序梗长度相关，33 个与株高相关，16 个与抽穗日期相关，以及 1 个与植物活力相关。检测到 11 个解释大于 10% 表型变异的高置信度主效应 QTL，其中 7 个是稳定的，1 个显示与株高和花梗长度相关。鉴定出可能与重要矮化 (Rht23) 和春化 (Vrn-B1) 基因等位的 QTL。六个 QTL：QFlw.uga-1A、QPdl.uga-1A、QFlw.uga-2B.2、QPdl.uga-5A、QPdl.uga-7A 和 QPht.uga-7B 被认为是新颖的，且邻近除 QPdl.uga-1A 外，所有候选基因均已确定。研究发现，主效应 QTL 的有利等位基因的金字塔化显着改善了花梗长度（缩短了 5 厘米）、旗叶宽度（增加了 0.18 厘米）和株高（缩短了 11 厘米）。这项研究提高了我们对重要农业形态性状的遗传学认识。这些结果经过进一步验证，可用于培育理想的植物结构，以提高小麦产量潜力。