ABSTRACT
An effort was made to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) governing drought tolerance in groundnut using TMV 2 × TMV 2-NLM recombinant inbred line (RIL) population. This population was evaluated across six environments including two rainy seasons (2019R and 2020R, Set I) and two post rainy seasons (2019PR and 2020PR, Set II) at Dharwad, and two post rainy seasons (2018PR and 2020PR, Set III) at Tirupati. Best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) were estimated for the three sets separately for the drought tolerance traits and further used for QTL analysis. A linkage map with 700 markers (139 AhTE, 8 SSRs and 553 SNPs) was used to identify the QTLs. Out of the 305 significant marker-trait associations identified by single marker analysis (SMA), only 21 had major effects on pod yield per plant (PYPP) in Set I, specific dry weight at 70 DAS (SDW_70), and specific leaf area at 70 DAS (SLA_70) in Set III. Three major main effect QTLs were found for PYPP in Set I, explaining up to 10.5% of the phenotypic variance. Nine major QTLs, with the highest explaining 18.4% of the variance, were identified in Set III for SDW_70, with four of them also influencing SLA_70 (highest PVE of 15.7%). Some of these QTLs participated in epistatic interactions and contributed to multiple QTL mapping models. Three major QTLs for PYPP and five major QTLs for SDW_70 were stable across locations. Candidate genes at these QTL regions were identified for the drought tolerance. Sixty-five RILs were identified as drought-tolerant using multi trait stability index (MTSI), with nine showing quick recovery from wilting under drought stress. These QTLs regions and superior RILs can be used for marker assisted breeding programme for drought-tolerance in groundnut in future.