Identification of Genetic Loci Conveying Resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris Race 0 in Chickpea

ABSTRACT

Chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.) is a legume that is widely consumed around the world due to its nutritional content. Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris is a serious, destructive pathogen that causes fusarium wilt disease and affects chickpea production. The development of chickpea varieties resistant to this pathogen is the most effective way to control fusarium wilt. This study aims to determine the population structure of chickpea and to identify markers associated with resistance to the Foc 0 race. A total of 201 C. arietinum and 116 C. reticulatum genotypes were collected and used as a plant material. Following DNA isolation, GBS was performed on all 317 Cicer genotypes. The resulting GBS‐derived SNPs were used as the genotypic dataset, whereas the disease severity scores of the isolates on chickpea genotypes served as phenotypic data. The associations between the SNPs and Foc 0 resistance genes were detected according to the MLM ( Q  +  K ) model using TASSEL Software 3.0, and the population structure was analysed using STRUCTURE software (v.2.2). Population is divided into two subpopulations ( K  = 2): wild and cultivated. The population consisting of wild‐type genotypes was further divided into two subpopulations ( K  = 2), whereas the cultivated genotypes were divided into four subpopulations ( K  = 4). Among them, TR83102 exhibited the highest resistance phenotyping score (35.71). Heritability was calculated as 0.78 for wild and 0.86 for cultivated species. A total of 37,123 SNPs were analysed, and FDR and Bonferroni thresholds were determined. As a result, 56 important markers were identified. These important markers can be used in breeding studies to develop Foc 0‐resistant varieties and to understand the resistance mechanisms against FW.