Genome-Wide Association Studies of Salt-Alkali Tolerance at Seedling and Mature Stages in .

Most plants are sensitive to salt-alkali stress, and the degree of tolerance to salt-alkali stress varies from different species and varieties. In order to explore the salt-alkali stress adaptability of , we collected the phenotypic data of 505 accessions at seedling and mature stages under control, low and high salt-alkali soil stress conditions in Inner Mongolia of China. Six resistant and 5 sensitive materials, respectively, have been identified both in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for 15 absolute values and 10 tolerance coefficients (TCs) of growth and agronomic traits were applied to investigate the genetic basis of salt-alkali tolerance of . We finally mapped 9 significant QTLs related to salt-alkali stress response and predicted 20 candidate genes related to salt-alkali stress tolerance. Some important candidate genes, including , and , were identified by combining sequence variation annotation and expression differences. The identified valuable loci and germplasms could be useful for breeding salt-alkali-tolerant varieties. This study laid a foundation for understanding molecular mechanism of salt-alkali stress adaptation and provides rich genetic resources for the large-scale production of on salt-alkali land in the future.