AUTHOR=Li Jieqin , Tang Weijie , Zhang Ya-Wen , Chen Kai-Ning , Wang Chenchen , Liu Yanlong , Zhan Qiuwen , Wang Chunming , Wang Shi-Bo , Xie Shang-Qian , Wang Lihua 

TITLE=Genome-Wide Association Studies for Five Forage Quality-Related Traits in Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2018

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2018.01146

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2018.01146

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=Understanding the genetic function of forage quality-related traits, including crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), hemicellulose (HC), and cellulose (CL) contents, is essential for identification of forage quality genes and selection of effective molecular markers in sorghum. In this study, we genotyped 245 sorghum accessions by 85,585 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and obtained phenotypic data from four environments. The SNPs and phenotypic data were applied to multi-locus genome-wide association studies (GWAS) with the software mrMLM. A total of 42 SNPs were identified to be associated with those five forage quality-related traits. Moreover, three and two quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) of them were detected simultaneously by three and two multi-locus methods, respectively. One QTN on chromosome 5 was found to be associated simultaneously with CP, NDF, and ADF. Furthermore, 3, 2, 2, 5, and 2 candidate genes were identified to be responsible for CP, NDF, ADF, HC, and CL contents, respectively. These results provided insightful information of forage quality-related traits and would facilitate genetic improvement of sorghum forage quality in the future.