Genome wide association study to identify the genetic base of smallholder farmer preferences of durum wheat traits

The study was conducted during the 2012 wheat growing season in two locations in the Ethiopian highlands. The first location was in the Geregera area, in the village of Workaye, Meket district (Amhara region, 11◦40′N/38◦52′E, WGS84). The second location was in the Hagreselam district, in the village of Melfa (Tigray region, 13◦39′N/39◦10′E, WGS84). In each location, 30 smallholder farmers growing wheat were selected on a voluntary basis, but keeping a 50:50 gender representation Farmers were asked to list the traits they used to evaluate wheat varieties, hereafter termed farmer traits (FT), and these were ranked by importance. Technicians collected 10 metrics traits on these sites and farmers provided a score for their overall plot evaluation. The genetic material here analyzed is a diversity panel comprising 400 Ethiopian wheat accessions conserved ex situ at the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute. DNA extraction for genotyping was conducted in Ethiopia, at the Mekelle University Molecular and Biotechnology Laboratory (Mekelle,Tigray).

本研究于2012年小麦生长季，在埃塞俄比亚高地的两个试验地点开展。第一个试验点位于阿姆哈拉州（Amhara region）梅克特区（Meket district）沃卡耶村的格雷格拉（Geregera）区域，地理坐标为11°40′N/38°52′E，采用WGS84坐标系。第二个试验点位于提格雷州（Tigray region）哈格雷塞拉姆区（Hagreselam district）的梅尔法村（Melfa），地理坐标为13°39′N/39°10′E，采用WGS84坐标系。每个试验点均通过自愿报名的方式选取30户种植小麦的小农，且严格维持50:50的性别比例。研究人员邀请农户列出其用于评价小麦品种的性状，以下简称农户评价性状（Farmer Trait, FT），并按重要性对这些性状进行排序。技术人员在各试验点采集了10项量化性状数据，同时由农户对其所属试验田的整体表现进行评分。本研究分析的遗传材料为一套包含400份埃塞俄比亚小麦种质的多样性群体，这些种质由埃塞俄比亚生物多样性研究所（Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute）进行异地保存。用于基因分型的DNA提取工作，在埃塞俄比亚提格雷州的麦克雷大学分子与生物技术实验室（Mekelle University Molecular and Biotechnology Laboratory, Mekelle, Tigray）完成。