Gwas for the identification of genomic regions controlling fertility in bread wheat

During the 21st century the world population is expected to rise to 10 billion people. Therefore, wheat production should increase by at least 20% to ensure global food security. Developing wheat cultivars able to maintain or even increase fertility under the actual scenario of climate change is a must for the next decades. The success of any breeding program depends on the available genetic diversity and knowledge of the genetic control of the target traits. Based on that, this work aims to determine the phenotypical diversity present in a set of 189 Spanish bread wheat landraces for phenology and fertility-related traits and to uncover the genomic regions controlling those traits. The phenotypic analysis conducted along six different seasons revealed that a group of genotypes from central regions of Spain was clearly different, as well as the important role of the environment. Besides, it revealed a negative correlation between fertility-related traits and phenology. Phenotypic data were coupled with high-throughput genotyping in a GWAS. Associations were unevenly distributed along the genome, with chromosomes 5A and 5B harbouring the majority of them. The analysis identified a total of 73 genomic regions, 34% of which have not been targeted in previous studies. Finally, the regions identified in more than one environment or associated with several fertility-related traits were screened, identifying a set of highly expressed genes and co-localization with several hormone-responsive transcription factors.