Investigation and genome-wide association study for Fusarium crown rot resistance in Chinese common wheat

BACKGROUND: Fusarium crown rot (FCR) is a severe and chronic disease in common wheat and is able to cause serious yield loss and health problems to human and livestock. RESULTS: Here, 234 Chinese wheat cultivars were evaluated in four greenhouse experiments for FCR resistance and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed using the wheat 660 K genotyping assay. The results indicated that most cultivars evaluated showed FCR disease index (DI) of 40–60, while some cultivars showed stably good FCR resistance (DI < 30). GWAS identified 286 SNPs to be significantly associated with FCR resistance, of which 266, 6 and 8 were distributed on chromosomes 6A, 6B and 6D, respectively. The significant SNPs on 6A were located in a 7.0-Mb region containing 51 annotated genes. On the other hand, QTL mapping using a bi-parental population derived from UC1110 and PI610750 detected three QTLs on chromosomes 6A (explaining 7.77–10.17% of phenotypic variation), 2D (7.15–9.29%) and 2A (5.24–6.92%). The 6A QTL in the UC1110/PI610750 population falls into the same chromosomal region as those detected from GWAS, demonstrating its importance in Chinese materials for FCR resistance. CONCLUSION: This study could provide useful information for utilization of FCR-resistant wheat germplasm and further understanding of molecular and genetics basis of FCR resistance in common wheat. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-019-1758-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.