AUTHOR=Shu Guoping , Wang Aifang , Wang Xingchuan , Ding Junqiang , Chen Ruijie , Gao Fei , Wang Aifen , Li Ting , Wang Yibo 

TITLE=Identification of southern corn rust resistance QTNs in Chinese summer maize germplasm via multi-locus GWAS and post-GWAS analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2023.1221395

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2023.1221395

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Southern corn rust (SCR) caused by <italic>Puccinia polysora</italic> Underw is a major disease leading to severe yield losses in China Summer Corn Belt. Using six multi-locus GWAS methods, we identified a set of SCR resistance QTNs from a diversity panel of 140 inbred lines collected from China Summer Corn Belt. Thirteen QTNs on chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8 were grouped into three types of allele effects and their associations with SCR phenotypes were verified by post-GWAS case-control sampling, allele/haplotype effect analysis. Relative resistance (RR<sub>R</sub>) and relative susceptibility (RRs) catering to its inbred carrier were estimated from single QTN and QTN-QTN combos and epistatitic effects were estimated for QTN-QTN combos. By transcriptomic annotation, a set of candidate genes were predicted to be involved in transcriptional regulation (<italic>S5_145, Zm00001d01613</italic>, transcription factor GTE4), phosphorylation (<italic>S8_123, Zm00001d010672</italic>, <italic>Pgk2-</italic> phosphoglycerate kinase 2), and temperature stress response (<italic>S6_164a/S6_164b, Zm00001d038806, hsp101</italic>, and <italic>S5_211, Zm00001d017978, cellulase25</italic>). The breeding implications of the above findings were discussed. </p>