Wang Le, Niu Fu'an, Wang Jinshe, Zhang Hengyou, Zhang Dan, Hu Zhenbin
State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Key Laboratory of Soybean Molecular Design Breeding, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin 150081, China.
Institute of Crop Breeding and Cultivation, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 201403, China.
Plants (Basel). 2024 Feb 23;13(5):615. doi: 10.3390/plants13050615.
Hundred-seed weight (HSW) and reproductive period length (RPL) are two major agronomic traits critical for soybean production and adaptation. However, both traits are quantitatively controlled by multiple genes that have yet to be comprehensively elucidated due to the lack of major genes; thereby, the genetic basis is largely unknown. In the present study, we conducted comprehensive genome-wide association analyses (GWAS) of HSW and RPL with multiple sets of accessions that were phenotyped across different environments. The large-scale analysis led to the identification of sixty-one and seventy-four significant QTLs for HSW and RPL, respectively. An ortholog-based search analysis prioritized the most promising candidate genes for the QTLs, including nine genes (, , , , , , , , and ) for HSW QTLs and nine genes (such as , , , and ) and six known soybean flowering time genes (, , , , , and ) for RPL QTLs. We also demonstrated that some QTLs were targeted during domestication to drive the artificial selection of both traits towards human-favored traits. Local adaptation likely contributes to the increased genomic diversity of the QTLs underlying RPL. The results provide additional insight into the genetic basis of HSW and RPL and prioritize a valuable resource of candidate genes that merits further investigation to reveal the complex molecular mechanism and facilitate soybean improvement.
百粒重（HSW）和生育期长度（RPL）是大豆生产和适应性的两个关键农艺性状。然而，这两个性状均受多个基因的数量性状控制，由于缺乏主基因，尚未得到全面阐明；因此，其遗传基础很大程度上未知。在本研究中，我们对多套在不同环境下表型分析的种质进行了HSW和RPL的全基因组关联分析（GWAS）。大规模分析分别鉴定出61个和74个与HSW和RPL显著相关的QTL。基于直系同源基因的搜索分析对QTL最有前景的候选基因进行了优先排序，包括9个与HSW QTL相关的基因（、、、、、、、和）以及9个与RPL QTL相关的基因（如、、、和）和6个已知的大豆开花时间基因（、、、、、和）。我们还证明，在驯化过程中一些QTL被定向选择，促使这两个性状朝着人类偏好的性状进行人工选择。局部适应性可能导致RPL潜在QTL的基因组多样性增加。这些结果为HSW和RPL的遗传基础提供了更多见解，并优先列出了有价值的候选基因资源，值得进一步研究以揭示复杂的分子机制并促进大豆改良。
