Genome-wide association study of seedling stage salinity tolerance in temperate japonica rice germplasm

Salinity has a significant impact on rice production in coastal, arid and semi-arid areas in many countries, including countries growing temperate rice, such as Kazakhstan. Salinity tolerant temperate japonica rice accessions were identified in this study, these accessions are important resources for breeding programs. SNPs located in the promising QTLs and candidate genes could be used for future gene validation and marker assisted selection.