Abstract
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the second most important cereal crop after rice. Improving yield is crucial to address population growth and food security. Enhancing crop productivity requires structural modification in plant architecture, mainly the canopy, which improves photosynthetic activity and mitigates stresses such as heat and drought. In this study, we evaluated 161 wheat genotypes for canopy architecture traits, performed marker-trait association to identify genetic factors influencing canopy structure. Precision phenotyping using imaging was conducted for traits including flag leaf area, flag leaf length, flag leaf width, flag leaf angle, canopy inclination angle, and ground cover. Genome-wide association study identified 230 significant quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) across all chromosomes for six traits in both years. Stable SNPs were detected on chromosomes 3B and 6B for flag leaf area and on 5 A for flag leaf width. Seven ortholog candidate genes i.e., OsDEP1, OsSPL14, ZmCLA4, ZmNA2, OsBZR1, OsHD1, and OsLIC were explored based on QTN proximity and transcriptome profiling for studied canopy related traits. This study helped to understand the prevalence of natural variations in Pakistan’s germplasm, and ortholog candidate genes involved in the wheat canopy architecture. These findings delivered the genome-based pre-breeding information for erect canopy lines which can be used in future for the development of new cultivars with efficient photosynthetic system. These findings will also assist the breeders in formulating the climate-resilient wheat varieties. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-37433-x.