Genome-wide association study of resistance to rough dwarf disease in maize

Maize rough dwarf disease (MRDD), caused by the Maize rough dwarf virus (MRDV) is highly prevalent across summer at maize-growing areas in China. To investigate the genetic architecture underlying this viral disease, a set of 236 Chinese maize inbred lines was evaluated for resistance to MRDD in 2010 and 2011. Based on 41,101 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers with minor allele frequencies (MAF) greater than 5 %, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was employed to identify genomic loci for resistance to MRDD. A total of 73 SNPs were found to be associated with resistance to MRDD at a significance threshold of -log10 (P)?>?4 controlling the false discovery rate (FDR) at α?=?0.1. Fourteen of these SNPs were detected in both of the two environments tested. A total of 48 SNPs were identified in linkage disequilibrium (LD) blocks containing candidate resistance genes, including protein kinase genes. Using the pedigree information and whole-genome SNP analysis of five highly resistant inbred lines derived from the hybrid ‘P78599’, nine derivative fragments harbouring SNPs associated with MRDD resistance were detected. One 81.57 Mb fragment in particular located in bin 8.03, which contained six SNPs associated with MRDD resistance, and included the major quantitative trait loci (QTL) that had been identified in the previous study. These results suggest that the SNPs and fragments associated with MRDD resistance, especially those in bin 8.03, could be used for fine mapping of resistance genes and developing resistant varieties in maize.