Journal of Crop Breeding

In this study, 12 retro transposons-based primers (7 IRAP and 5 REMAP primers) and general and mixed linear models (GLM and MLM) were used to identify molecular markers associated to 22 agro morphological traits in 48 different confectionery sunflower accessions. Studied accessions were divided into three main groups using Neighbor Joining method. Study of population structure as a prerequisite for association analysis showed that there is two possible subgroups (K=2) in the studied population. Based on GLM and MLM, 131 and 117 loci showed significant (P<0.01) association with assessed traits under different environmental conditions, respectively. Common markers between some of studied traits can be possibly due to pleiotropic effects or linkage between genomic regions involved in these traits. Obtained results from this study offered valuable information on the genetic basis of studied traits that can be used in breeding programs to production of high performance varieties of confectionery sunflower.