Abstract

Unpredictable climate change in recent decades has led to soil depletion, among other things. Furthermore, global food demand is increasing. This poses challenges for agriculture, which must quickly respond to numerous simultaneous changes. Increasing yields and improving their quality are issues we constantly grapple with. Especially in recent decades, food security has become increasingly important. Integrating traditional agronomic knowledge with the latest discoveries in molecular biology can help solve these growing problems. Association mapping is an increasingly used to identify candidate genes that most significantly determine quantitative traits. It combines the potential of large-scale genetic datasets with the precise analysis of phenotypic traits. The aim of this publication is to present association mapping as a modern and versatile research concept that supports the development of agronomy, with particular emphasis on its application in identifying candidate genes associated with traits essential in agriculture.

Keywords:Association mapping; Genome-wide association studies; K-mer GWAS; Multi-omics strategies; Linkage-disequilibrium; Molecular markers