The Identification of a Yield-Related Gene Controlling Multiple Traits Using GWAS in Sorghum ( L.).

(L.) is one of the oldest crops cultivated by human beings which has been used in food and wine making. To understand the genetic diversity of sorghum breeding resources and further guide molecular-marker-assisted breeding, six yield-related traits were analyzed for 214 sorghum germplasm from all over the world, and 2,811,016 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) markers were produced by resequencing these germplasms. After controlling Q and K, QTLs were found to be related to the traits using three algorisms. Interestingly, an important QTL was found which may affect multiple traits in this study. It was the most likely candidate gene for the gene , which was a homolog of gene- found by analyzing the annotation of the gene in the LD block. The haplotype analysis showed that the was the elite haplotype, and it only existed in Chinese germplasms. The traits were proven to be more associated with the SNPs of the promoter through gene association studies. Overall, the QTLs and the genes identified in this study would benefit molecular-assisted yield breeding in sorghum.