Genome-Wide Associations for Water-Soluble Carbohydrate Concentration and Relative Maturity in Wheat Using SNP and DArT Marker Arrays

Improving water-use efficiency by incorporating drought avoidance traits into new wheat varieties is an important objective for wheat breeding in water-limited environments. This study uses genome wide association studies (GWAS) to identify candidate loci for water-soluble carbohydrate accumulation—an important drought-avoidance characteristic in wheat. Phenotypes from a multi-environment trial with experiments differing in water availability and separate single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and diversity arrays technology (DArT) marker sets were used to perform the analyses. Significant associations for water-soluble carbohydrate accumulation were identified on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 1D, 2D, and 4A. Notably, these loci did not collocate with the major loci identified for relative maturity. Loci on chromosome 1D collocated with markers previously associated with the high molecular weight glutenin Glu-D1 locus. Genetic × environmental interactions impacted the results strongly, with significant associations for carbohydrate accumulation identified only in the water-deficit experiments. The markers associated with carbohydrate accumulation may be useful for marker-assisted selection of drought tolerance in wheat.