GENETIC MAPPING OF SEEDLING AND ADULT PLANT RESISTANCE FOR STRIPE RUST IN SPRING BREAD WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L.)

Stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f.sp.tritici, is one of the major diseases of wheat in the world. Experiments were carried out at two sites in Ethiopia (Kulumsa and Meraro) during the 2015 cropping season to evaluate the response of 198 elite bread wheat genotypes and two checks to the prevailing races of stripe rust at adult plant and seedling stage. The genetic profile of these genotypes was assessed using 13006 SNP markers and an association mapping was explored to determine marker?trait association. About 72.5% and 42.5% of the lines exhibited resistance at Kulumsa and Meraro, respectively. Out of 198 genotypes tested in the greenhouse, 31% exhibited common resistance for Kubsa and mixed stripe rust isolate. Only 8966 of the SNPs were polymorphic, only these were used for association mapping analysis. These markers spanned an average density of 3.47 cM per marker, with the poorest density on the D genome. Almost half of these markers were on known chromosomes, but had no position on the consensus map of bread wheat. Analysis of population structure revealed the existence of three clusters and the estimated genomic wide Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) decay in this study ranged from 0 to 50 cM. 53 SNPs in ten genomic regions located on wheat chromosome 1AL, 2AL, 2BL, 2DL, 3BL, 4BL, 4DL, 5AS, 7AL and 7BL were identified. Thirty nine SNP markers in five genomic regions at Kulumsa and 14 SNP markers in six genomic regions at Meraro explained more than 25.5% and 35.1% of phenotypic variability respectively. For seedling stage, 21 markers in ten genomic regions located on wheat chromosomes 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4B, 4D, 5A, 6B and 7B were associated with resistant. These loci may be useful for choosing parents and incorporating new resistance genes into locally adapted cultivars.