Genome-wide association mapping for resistance to leaf, stem, and yellow rusts of common wheat under field conditions of South Kazakhstan

Common or bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) is the most important cereal crop in the world, including Kazakhstan, where it is a major agricultural commodity. Fungal pathogens producing leaf, stem, and yellow (stripe) rusts of wheat may cause yield losses of up to 50–60%. One of the most effective methods for preventing these losses is to develop resistant cultivars with high yield potential. This goal can be achieved using complex breeding studies, including the identification of key genetic factors controlling rust disease resistance. In this study, a panel consisting of 215 common wheat cultivars and breeding lines from Kazakhstan, Russia, Europe, USA, Canada, Mexico, and Australia, with a wide range of resistance to leaf rust (LR), stem rust (SR), and yellow rust (YR) diseases, was analyzed under field conditions in Southern Kazakhstan. The collection was genotyped using the 20K Illumina iSelect DNA array, where 11,510 informative single-nucleotide polymorphism markers were selected for further genome-wide association study (GWAS). Evaluation of the phenotypic diversity over 2 years showed a mostly mixed reaction to LR, mixed reaction/moderate susceptibility to SR, and moderate resistance to YR among wheat accessions from Kazakhstan. GWAS revealed 45 marker–trait associations (MTAs), including 23 for LR, 14 for SR, and eight for YR resistances. Three MTAs for LR resistance and one for SR resistance appeared to be novel. The MTAs identified in this work can be used for marker-assisted selection of common wheat in Kazakhstan in breeding new cultivars resistant to LR, SR, and YR diseases. These findings can be helpful for pyramiding genes with favorable alleles in promising cultivars and lines.