Genome‐Wide Association Mapping for searching novel leaf rust seedling resistance loci in Iranian bread wheat germplasm

Leaf or brown rust caused by Puccinia triticina Eriks. ( Pt ) is a limiting factor for wheat production. Thus, a constant search for new resistance genes or QTLs is essential to improve the resistance durability against the continued evolution of new races of Pt . This study was aimed at exploring potentially novel genes/QTLs resistance to leaf rust in Iranian wheat landraces and cultivars by using association mapping. Using a panel of 320 wheat accessions, genome-wide association study (GWAS) genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) techniques were adopted to map loci associated with resistance to five races of Pt . A total of 17 major marker-trait associations (MTAs) were found on wheat chromosomes that were significantly linked with seedling resistance to Pt . Three markers including rs12954, rs15705, and rs42447 were detected as novel loci for resistance to PKTTS race. Our findings presented new and putative resources of leaf rust resistance in Iranian bread wheat accessions. The new identified SNPs will be valuable to expand the set of resistance genes available to control this serious disease.