Association of yield-related traits in founder genotypes and derivatives of common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

BACKGROUND: Yield improvement is an ever-important objective of wheat breeding. Studying and understanding the phenotypes and genotypes of yield-related traits has potential for genetic improvement of crops. RESULTS: The genotypes of 215 wheat cultivars including 11 founder parents and 106 derivatives were analyzed by the 9 K wheat SNP iSelect assay. A total of 4138 polymorphic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci were detected on 21 chromosomes, of which 3792 were mapped to single chromosome locations. All genotypes were phenotyped for six yield-related traits including plant height (PH), spike length (SL), spikelet number per spike (SNPS), kernel number per spike (KNPS), kernel weight per spike (KWPS), and thousand kernel weight (TKW) in six irrigated environments. Genome-wide association analysis detected 117 significant associations of 76 SNPs on 15 chromosomes with phenotypic explanation rates (R(2)) ranging from 2.03 to 12.76%. In comparing allelic variation between founder parents and their derivatives (106) and other cultivars (98) using the 76 associated SNPs, we found that the region 116.0–133.2 cM on chromosome 5A in founder parents and derivatives carried alleles positively influencing kernel weight per spike (KWPS), rarely found in other cultivars. CONCLUSION: The identified favorable alleles could mark important chromosome regions in derivatives that were inherited from founder parents. Our results unravel the genetic of yield in founder genotypes, and provide tools for marker-assisted selection for yield improvement. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-018-1234-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.