Association Analysis of Agronomic Traits of Foxtail Millet Germplasm using AFLP Marker

Objective Considering the importance and application of informative markersin the plant breeding programs, the current research aimed to identify the markers related to morphological traits using the association analysisin foxtail millet genotypes. Materials and methods The current study attempts to identify molecular markers relevant to morphological traits of 30 foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) genotypes by applying an association analysis through a Mixed Linear Model (MLM). In order to avoid false linkage, a population structure study was first performed and 9 probable subgroups were observed in the studied genotypes. Results Association analysis, having taken the structure of the population and kinship relations into consideration in the 30 foxtail millet genotypes in question, represented 38 points of linkage with 12 morphological traits. The coefficient of determination at a highly significant level (P<0.01) was variable from 0.102 and 0.328. The results showed that among the 12 primer combinations of AFLP used in this study, M-CTG/E-AAC, M-CTT/E-AAC and M-CTA/E-AAC were the most efficient in investigating the variety of the genotypes. Also, a number of markers such as M-CAA/E-AAC, M-CTG/E-AGC and M-CTT/E-AAC were connected to several traits such as height, leaf length and width, number of tillers, 1000- seed weight and grain yield, among which the highest connection was with M-CTT/E-AAC. Conclusion Identifying joint markers is of paramount importance in plant breeding plans because they make simultaneous selection of several traits possible. These markers can be used in screening germplasms in the presence of close linkages with the controlling genes. They also can be used in QTL identification programs in genotyping of foxtail millet cross populations. Therefore, the findings of this study can be applied in primary selection and breeding plans of foxtail millet using a Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) process.