ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Breeding
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1647985
Genome wide association analysis for biomass related traits in common vetch (Vicia sativa L.)
Provisionally accepted
- 1Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, China
- 2Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) is a leguminous plant widely cultivated in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, primarily used as a forage crop and green manure. To identify loci significantly associated with biomass related traits, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was perdormed in 172 common vetch accessions mainly from China and Europe. The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were obtained through re-sequencing, while five biomass related traits, including the fresh weight (FW), dry weight (DW), fresh weight per plant (PFW), dry weight per plant (PDW) and plant height (PH), were evaluated across four environments. In total, 33 loci were identified, and explain 11.6-22.5% of the phenotypic variances. Notably, among them, qPDW1.2 and qPFW1.3, qPH2.1 and qFW2.1, qDW4.1 and qFW4.1, qPH5.1 and qPH5.1, qDW6.1 and qFW6.1 are overlapped or located in the same genomic region, exhibiting pleiotropic effects on two traits, and should be prioritized in further vetch breeding programs. Additionally, all the 33 loci are novel compared with previous reports. Fifth candidate genes for biomass related traits were identified for biomass related traits, encoding ethylene-responsive transcription factors, ABC transporter family proteins, serine/threonine-protein phosphatase, cellulose synthase, and auxin-responsive proteins. Furthermore, we successfully developed and verified a kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) marker (Kasp-DW1.1) for dry weight. Accessions with more favorable alleles, superior biomass related traits and agronomic traits, eg. GLF295, GLF299, GLF313, GLF321, GLF325, GLF328, GLF329, GLF330, GLF331, GLF335, HZMC1382 and HZMC1487 are recommended as parental lines for further common vetch breeding. This study enhances our understanding of the genetic architecture of biomass related traits and provides available novel loci, molecular tools and outstanding varieties for improving common vetch biomass in future breeding.
Keywords: association analysis, Dry weight, Fresh weight, marker-assisted selection (MAS), Vicia sativa L
Received: 16 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jin, Zhang, Dimtrov, Yang, Du, Wu, Chang, Zhang and Zhao. 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:
Hui Jin, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, China
Haibin Zhao, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 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.