Characterization of Histone H3 Gene Family Reveals That is Associated With Higher Seed Weight in .

The main function of histone protein is to provide support to the structure of chromosomes. It helps in binding a long thread of DNA into a more condensed shape to fit into the nucleus. From histone variants, histone H3 () plays a crucial role in plant growth and development. Characterization of histones has not been reported in till now. The objective of this study was to characterize the gene family for molecular breeding of . In this study, 17 members in were identified by performing local BLASTp using members from as a query. Phylogenetic analysis classified genes in seven clades. Sequence logo analysis among , , and showed a higher level of similarity in amino acids. Furthermore, conserveness of genes was also confirmed by Gene Structure Display. Ten paralogous gene pairs were identified in genes in the genome by conducting collinearity analysis. genes have experienced strong purifying selection pressure, with limited functional divergence originating from the segmental and whole-genome duplication, as evidenced by the ratio. The KASP marker was developed for gene. Genotyping was performed on 46 genotypes. This differentiation was based upon the presence of either or allele in the CDS region. The results showed that accessions containing the allele at respective locus showed higher thousand seed weight than that of those accessions that contain the allele. This research provides the basic information to further decipher the function of in soybean.