Bulked Segregant Analysis‐Sequencing identification of candidate genes for salt tolerance at the seedling stage of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor)

Abstract Sorghum has high salt tolerance, and the localization and discovery of salt tolerance regulatory genes in sorghum is an effective way to develop and utilize saline soils. The aim of this study was to locate sorghum salt tolerance genes using a F 2 segregating population combined with bulked segregation analysis (BSA) sequencing technology to explore the salt tolerance potential of sorghum. The results showed that the effective data percentage of all four samples (salt‐tolerant parent, salt‐tolerant offspring pool, salt‐sensitive parent and salt‐sensitive offspring pool) was above 99.90%. By comparing sequencing results of each of the two offspring pools with the reference genome, we found 903,025 SNP variants and 438,453 InDel variants between the two offspring pools. A total of 163 polymorphic loci were found in the genome‐wide screening of SNP‐index values close to 0.75 for the salt‐tolerant offspring pool and 0.25 for the non‐salt‐tolerant offspring pool. A total of 20 candidate genes were screened according to ANNOVAR annotation results. The Sobic.001G283700 gene encoding glycerol‐3‐phosphate acyltransferases (GPATs) was found to be closely associated with salt stress tolerance.