Acta Agriculturae Boreali-Sinica ›› 2026, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (1): 71-78. doi: 10.7668/hbnxb.20196164

Special Issue: Oil crops Saline-alkali stress Biotechnology

• Crop Genetics & Breeding·Germplasm Resources·Biotechnology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Genome-Wide Association Study of Salt Tolerance Traits in Sunflower at Seedling Stage

WU Jiajun, LI Yuxiao, ZHANG Xinrong, ZHU Zirong, TAN Meilian, WANG Lei, WANG Ling, WANG Wei, ZHANG Yuxue   

  1. Oil Crops Research Institute,Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences,Key Laboratory of Oil Crop Biology and Genetics and Breeding,Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs,Wuhan 430062,China
  • Received:2025-05-29 Published:2026-03-10

Abstract:

Sunflower is an important oil crop with strong salt tolerance in China.However,the production of sunflower is severely restricted by the intensification of salinization in main producing areas.To understand the salt tolerance mechanism of salt tolerance-related traits at the seedling stage of sunflower,and to identify SNP loci and candidate genes significantly associated with salt tolerance at the seedling stage of sunflower,124 sunflower germplasm accessions were used as materials.Under the stress of 250 mmol/L NaCl,genome-wide association analysis and mining of salt-tolerance loci/genes were performed based on 5 traits including plant height,leaf area,aboveground fresh weight,underground fresh weight,and SPAD value.The results showed that after 14 days of salt stress,the five trait indexes of relative plant height,relative leaf area,relative fresh weight of the above-ground part,relative fresh weight of the underground part and relative SPAD value at seedling stage had significant variations and normal distributions,and the most obvious influences were the relative fresh weight of the underground part and relative leaf area (with a coefficient of variation of over 46.57%).Eighteen significantly-associated SNP loci were obtained by genome-wide association analysis,among which Chr35448-18789497 was detected in several salt-tolerant traits;gene searches were conducted at 80 kb each in the upstream and downstream of associated loci,45 related candidate genes were screened out.Through scanning and gene annotation analysis of the associated locus intervals,four candidate genes that might be related to the salt tolerance trait of sunflower seedlings were discovered.A genome-wide association analysis was conducted using the phenotypes of salt tolerance identification at the seedling stage and genomic SNP data for sunflower germplasm accessions.SNP loci significantly associated with salt tolerance at the seedling stage were detected,and candidate genes related to salt tolerance at the seedling stage of sunflower were selected,which laid the foundation for the subsequent verification of salt-tolerant genes.

Key words: Sunflower, Germplasm resource, Salt tolerance at seedling stage, Genome-wide association study(GWAS), Gene

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Cite this article

WU Jiajun, LI Yuxiao, ZHANG Xinrong, ZHU Zirong, TAN Meilian, WANG Lei, WANG Ling, WANG Wei, ZHANG Yuxue. Genome-Wide Association Study of Salt Tolerance Traits in Sunflower at Seedling Stage[J]. Acta Agriculturae Boreali-Sinica, 2026, 41(1): 71-78. doi: 10.7668/hbnxb.20196164.

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