Identification of anthracnose race 1 resistance loci in lentil by integrating linkage mapping and genome‐wide association study

Abstract

Abstract Anthracnose, caused byColletotrichum lentis, is a devastating disease of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) in western Canada. Growing resistant lentil cultivars is the most cost‐effective and environmentally friendly approach to prevent seed yield losses that can exceed 70%. To identify loci conferring resistance to anthracnose race 1 in lentil, biparental quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping of two recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations was integrated with a genome‐wide association study (GWAS) using 200 diverse lentil accessions from a lentil diversity panel. A major‐effect QTL (qAnt1.Lc‐3) conferring resistance to race 1 was mapped to lentil chromosome 3 and colocated on the lentil physical map for both RIL populations. Clusters of candidate nucleotide‐binding leucine‐rich repeat (NB‐LRR) and other defense‐related genes were uncovered within the QTL region. A GWAS detected 14 significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers associated with race 1 resistance on chromosomes 3, 4, 5, and 6. The most significant GWAS SNPs on chromosome 3 supported qAnt1.Lc‐3 and delineated a region of 1.6 Mb containing candidate resistance genes. The identified SNP markers can be directly applied in marker‐assisted selection (MAS) to accelerate the introgression of race 1 resistance in lentil breeding.