Genome-Wide Associations with Resistance to Bipolaris Leaf Spot (Bipolaris oryzae (Breda de Haan) Shoemaker) in a Northern Switchgrass Population (Panicum virgatum L.)

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a northern native perennial grass, suffers from yield reduction from Bipolaris leaf spot caused by Bipolaris oryzae (Breda de Haan) Shoemaker. This study aimed to determine the resistant populations via multiple phenotyping approaches and identify potential resistance genes from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in the switchgrass northern association panel. The disease resistance was evaluated from both natural (field evaluations in Ithaca, New York and Phillipsburg, Philadelphia) and artificial inoculations (detached leaf and leaf disk assays). The most resistant populations based on a combination of three phenotyping approaches—detached leaf, leaf disk, and mean from two locations—were ‘SW788’, ‘SW806’, ‘SW802’, ‘SW793’, ‘SW781’, ‘SW797’, ‘SW798’, ‘SW803’, ‘SW795’, ‘SW805’. The GWAS from the association panel showed 27 significant SNPs on 12 chromosomes: 1K, 2K, 2N, 3K, 3N, 4N, 5K, 5N, 6N, 7K, 7N, and 9N. These markers accumulatively explained the phenotypic variance of the resistance ranging from 3.28 to 26.52%. Within linkage disequilibrium of 20 kb, these SNP markers linked with the potential resistance genes included the genes encoding for NBS-LRR, PPR, cell-wall related proteins, homeostatic proteins, anti-apoptotic proteins, and ABC transporter.