Due to its high nutritional value, chickpea is one of the most important and cost-effective legumes for human diet. Nutrient elements, such as Cu, P, K have numerous essential functions for the human metabolism. In this study, association mapping of loci linked to the seed Cu, P and K concentrations were performed on a population consisting of 107 Cicer reticulatum and 73 Cicer arietinum individuals in four environments (two locations x two years). A total of 121,840 SNPs were genotyped across 180 individuals by GBS analysis. The association mapping between the SNP markers and the seed Cu, P, K concentrations were identified and eight SNPs were found to be significantly associated with variations in three nutrient elements in more than two environments This research suggests that association mapping is a useful methodology for the identification of loci controlling the Cu, P and K uptake in chickpea seeds for further association mapping, molecular breeding, and marker-assisted selection and plant breeding studies and provides a broader understanding of the relationship between the investigated Cicer species and the effects of environmental conditions.
Keywords: Cicer arietinum; Cicer reticulatum; Copper; Genome-wide association mapping; Phosphorus; Potassium.
Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.