Durum Wheat Breeding for Enhanced Safety and Nutritional Value: A GWAS Approach to Tackling Aluminum Uptake


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Alsaleh A.

Uluslararası Tarım ve Yaban Hayatı Bilimleri Dergisi, vol.9, no.2, pp.262-277, 2023 (Peer-Reviewed Journal) identifier

Abstract

The importance of producing safe and high-quality food is on the rise, and developing durum wheat varieties with low aluminum content is crucial in meeting this demand. Breeders can achieve this goal by developing new varieties that are more resistant to aluminum uptake. To reach this purpose, aluminum levels in a diverse collection of durum wheat genotypes were evaluated, including Turkish-released cultivars and local landraces, by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used. The results revealed that genotypes ranged from 0.9 to 24.6 mg kg-1, with an average of 3.31 mg kg-1, while 93.1% of them had a low content of ≤ 5 mg kg-1. A genome-wide association study is a robust method for uncovering genetic variations linked to specific traits. In this study, two marker-trait associations were identified on chromosomes 2A and 3A, which explained a phenotypic variation of 14 and 71%. These findings highlight the need for continued monitoring to ensure safe and healthy food for consumers and suggest that collaborative genome-wide association studies and marker-assisted selection can accelerate the development of new durum wheat varieties with reduced aluminum levels. However, further research is necessary to confirm and validate the genetic factors contributing to aluminum content variation among different durum wheat genotypes, although the study's methodology was robust.