Wheat （Triticum aestivum） is one of important food crops in many countries， whereas drought seriously destabilizes its growth and yield production. In this study， the genome-wide association study （GWAS） was conducted to mine SNP loci and candidate genes that associate with drought resistance of wheat root traits at seedling stage. 183 Xinjiang spring wheat varieties （lines） were examined under 20% PEG-6000 or normal nutrient solution treatment conditions， to simulate drought stress at seedling stage. The measurement of root traits were statistically analyzed， and the correlation analysis of drought resistance coefficient was carried out. Genome-wide association analysis of drought resistance coefficients of eight traits including total root length， root surface area， root volume， root mean diameter， root fresh weight， root dry weight， root tip number and maximum root length was performed using a hybrid linear model MLM （Q+K） using 55K SNPs， and candidate genes were identified for significant inherited association loci. The results showed that the variation coefficient of eight root traits were 17.81%~70.71% and 20.01%~61.62% under normal and PEG stress conditions， respectively. Correlation analysis results showed that the drought resistance coefficient of average root diameter was significantly negatively correlated with those of total root length， number of root tips and maximum root length. The drought resistance coefficient of total root length and root surface area had the largest correlation coefficient of 0.74. Genome-wide association scanning enabled identification of 54 SNPs associated to root drought resistance （P≤0.001）， distributed on 16 chromosomes except 3B， 3D， 5D， 6D and 7D. Each single locus could explain the phenotypic variation ranging from 6.18% to 18.74%. In addition， six pleiotropic loci were detected， which were located on chromosomes 1A， 5A， 7A， 1B， 5B and 2D， each explaining the phenotypic variation ranging from 6.55% to 18.74%. The locus AX-110482078-AX-110400975 was significantly associated with the number of root tips， root volume and maximum root length on chromosome 5A， with the contribution rate ranging from 8.74% to 15.44%. Nine candidate genes were proposed based on 54 significantly-associated SNPs. With gene annotation information， three genes TraesCS4A01G424000， TraesCS6A01G047200 and TraesCS5B01G056600 were proposed to be involved in physiological regulation of wheat stress by regulating translipoprotein， peroxidase and MYB transcription factors， respectively.