Advancing crop improvement through GWAS and beyond in mung bean.

Accessing the underlying genetics of complex traits, especially in small grain pulses is an important breeding objective for crop improvement. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) analyze thousands of genetic variants across several genomes to identify links with specific traits. This approach has discovered many strong associations between genes and traits, and the number of associated variants is expected to continue to increase as GWAS sample sizes increase.

Unraveling the impact of water deficit stress on nutritional quality and defense response of tomato genotypes.

Water deficit stress triggers various physiological and biochemical changes in plants, substantially affecting both overall plant defense response and thus nutritional quality of tomatoes. The aim of this study was to assess the antioxidant defense response and nutritional quality of different tomato genotypes under water deficit stress. In this study, six tomato genotypes were used and subjected to water deficit stress by withholding water for eight days under glass house conditions.

A GBS-based genome-wide association study reveals the genetic basis of salinity tolerance at the seedling stage in bread wheat ( L.).

High salinity levels affect 20% of the cultivated area and 9%-34% of the irrigated agricultural land worldwide, ultimately leading to yield losses of crops. The current study evaluated seven salt tolerance-related traits at the seedling stage in a set of 138 pre-breeding lines (PBLs) and identified 63 highly significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) linked to salt tolerance. Different candidate genes were identified in analysis, many of which were involved in various stress conditions in plants, including glycine-rich cell wall structural protein 1-like, metacaspase-1, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase GAPA1, and plastidial GAPA1.