Genome-Wide Association Studies for Resistance in Tropical Maize.

L. is a parasitic weed in cereal crops including maize leading to tremendous yield losses up to 100% under severe infestation. The available control methods include cultural control options such as uprooting and burning the plants before they flower, field sanitation, crop rotation, intercropping, organic matter usage, improved fallows, and application of herbicides. Resource limitation among smallholder farmers renders almost all of the control methods impossible. Development and use of resistant genotypes are seen as the most feasible management option. Marker identification formulates tools that are faster, cheaper, and easier to utilise in breeding for resistance which has low heritability. The objective of this study was to identify single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for resistance using the genome-wide association study (GWAS). Genotyping by sequencing was done on tropical maize inbred lines followed by their evaluation for resistance. Analysis of variance showed significant ( < 0.05) variation among evaluated genotypes for resistance traits such as germination distance, germination percentage, haustoria root attachments, total plants emerged, total biomass, and growth rate. There were also significant differences ( < 0.05) for cobs, leaves, stems, and roots weight. The broad sense heritability was fairly high (up to 61%) for most traits. The means for derived traits on stress tolerance indices were subjected to a -test, and significant differences ( < 0.05) were found for leaves, stem, roots, shoots, and total biomass. The Manhattan plots from GWAS showed the presence of three SNP markers on chromosome numbers 5, 6, and 7 for total plants emerged. The identified markers for resistance to should be validated and utilised to breed for resistance in tropical maize.