Genome‐Wide Association Study Uncovers Key QTNs Controlling Arsenic Accumulation in Lentil ( <scp> <i>Lens culinaris</i> </scp> )

ABSTRACT Irrigation with arsenic‐contaminated water carries significant levels of arsenic into agricultural soils, posing toxicity risks to plants and animals through bioaccumulation. In Bangladesh, arsenic toxicity is linked to approximately 20% of human mortality, either directly or indirectly. Lentils exhibit higher arsenic uptake than many other crops due to favorable soil–plant interactions, often exceeding the safety threshold of 0.05 mg kg −1 . Controlling arsenic absorption and translocation within lentil tissues offers a strategy to reduce dietary exposure. Arsenic concentrations in vegetative tissues (stem) were quantified using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) across a diverse panel of lentil accessions. Genotyping‐by‐sequencing (GBS) was employed to generate single‐nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data following standard protocols. Genome‐wide association analysis was conducted, using the Fixed and Random Model Circulating Probability Unification (FARM‐CPU) and Bayesian‐information and Linkage‐disequilibrium Iteratively Nested Keyway (BLINK) implemented in GAPIT version 3. A total of 10,681 SNP markers with a minor allele frequency (MAF) &gt; 0.05 were analyzed across 100 lentil accessions to detect marker–trait associations. Six quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs)—chr‐1_32513027, chr‐1_56013303, chr‐2_4807923, chr‐5‐11129772, chr‐5_12372201, and chr‐6_14193677—were significantly associated with arsenic accumulation. These findings provide a foundation for breeding arsenic‐mitigating lentil cultivars through the identification of markers and the identification of genetic markers linked to reduced arsenic uptake, which can support breeding strategies aimed at producing lentil varieties with lower arsenic concentrations, contributing to food safety and environmental sustainability.