Genome-wide association analysis for drought tolerance and associated traits in common bean

Common bean is an important food legume and its production is frequently threatened by recurring drought events worldwide. The detection of genetic signals associated with drought tolerance has great potential in breeding for drought tolerance in common bean and gaining insight into the genetic control drought responses in plants. The objectives of this study were to explore the genetic variation present within a 96-entry diversity panel grown under irrigated and rainfed conditions and use genome-wide association (GWAS) analysis to identify candidate regions associated with drought tolerance traits and agronomic performance in common bean genotypes from the Middle American gene pool. We used single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data to explore genetic diversity and ancestry of the diversity panel and discovered varying levels of admixture and purity as well as distinctly divergent individuals. We report in this significant study marker-trait associations for shoot biomass at harvest (irrigated and rainfed), shoot biomass at flowering (irrigated), seed size (irrigated and rainfed), lodging score (irrigated), leaf elongation rate and wilting score.