Genome-wide association and epistasis studies of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum resistance in soybean

viii THESIS ORGANIZATION ix CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Soybean 1 Pathogen Biology 1 Prevalence and Causes of Yield Losses 4 Control Measures 5 Genetic Control and Analysis 7 Association Mapping 10 Epistasis 14 CHAPTER 2 GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION AND EPISTASIS STUDIES OF Sclerotinia sclerotiorum RESISTANCE IN SOYBEAN 15 Introduction 15 Experimental Procedures 18 Results and Discussion 31 CHAPTER 3 GENERAL CONCLUSION 60 Conclusion 60 Recommendations for Future Work 60 REFERENCES 62