Genetic dissection of Ni toxicity in a spring wheat diversity panel using 90 K SNP array

Abstract Excess Ni intake has harmful implications on human health, which include chronic bronchitis, reduced lung function, and cancer of lung and nasal sinuses. Like other toxic metals, higher Ni accumulation in grains lead to excess intake by humans when the contaminated grains are consumed as food. There is little information about the genetic factors that regulate Ni uptake in plants. To investigate genetic architecture of Ni uptake in leaf and translocation to grain, we performed a genome-wide association study with genotyping from 90 K array in a historical bread wheat diversity panel from Pakistan. We observed that Ni toxicity caused more than 50 % reductions in biological yield and grain yield, other agronomic traits were also partly or severely affected. Genetic association study helped identify 23 SNP-trait associations involved in Ni uptake in leaf and translocation to grains. These 23 SNPs covered 15 genomic loci at chromosome 1A, 2D, 3B, 4A and 4B of wheat. The favorable alleles of these SNPs were randomly distributed in subpopulations indicating no selection pressure for this trait during breeding improvement. These regions had 283 low-confidence and 248 high-confidence protein coding genes. Among these, 156 were annotated using databases of wheat and closely related grass species. As there is no previous report on genetic information of Ni uptake and translocation, these results provide sufficient grounds for further research of candidate genes and varietal development.