ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.

Sec. Plant Breeding

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1625778

Genome-wide Association Study Identifies Candidate SNP Markers and Genes Associated with Low Nitrogen Tolerance in Brassica napus

Provisionally accepted
Jingdong ChenJingdong Chen1,2Lingli XieLingli Xie1Xianfei HouXianfei Hou3Rui YangRui Yang1Jin LiuJin Liu1Xigang DaiXigang Dai2Tianyuan XueTianyuan Xue2Shuai YinShuai Yin2Benbo XuBenbo Xu1Xuekun ZhangXuekun Zhang1*Changli ZengChangli Zeng2*Jinsong XuJinsong Xu1*
  • 1MARA Key Laboratory of Sustainable Crop Production in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
  • 2Hubei Engineering Research Center for Protection and Utilization of Special Biological Resources in the Hanjiang River Basin, College of Life Science, Jianghan University, Wuhan, China
  • 3Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi, China

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Low nitrogen stress is a significant factor affecting crop growth and productivity. In this study, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify SNP markers and candidate genes associated with LN tolerance in a panel of 275 Brassica napus accessions. Five seedling traitsincluding leaf number (NL), shoot length (SL), root length (RL), shoot fresh weight (SFW), and root fresh weight (RFW)-were evaluated under LN conditions. The results revealed substantial genetic variation among accessions, and the traits were found to be under polygenic control. A total of 71 significant SNPs were identified, and a subset were located near genes annotated as potentially involved in nitrogen-related pathways. These findings enhance our understanding of the genetic basis of LN tolerance in B. napus and provide valuable targets for improving nitrogen use efficiency through molecular breeding.

Keywords: Brassica napus, Nitrogen, GWAS, stress, SNP

Received: 09 May 2025; Accepted: 16 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Xie, Hou, Yang, Liu, Dai, Xue, Yin, Xu, Zhang, Zeng and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Xuekun Zhang, MARA Key Laboratory of Sustainable Crop Production in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
Changli Zeng, Hubei Engineering Research Center for Protection and Utilization of Special Biological Resources in the Hanjiang River Basin, College of Life Science, Jianghan University, Wuhan, China
Jinsong Xu, MARA Key Laboratory of Sustainable Crop Production in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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