Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Soybean Genomics & Improvement Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #300983
Title: Genome-wide association mapping of flowering time and maturity dates in early mature soybean germplasm

Author
item ZHANG, JIAOPING - South Dakota State University
item Song, Qijian
item Cregan, Perry
item Nelson, Randall
item WU, JIXIANG - South Dakota State University
item JIANG, GUO-LIANG - South Dakota State University

Submitted to: BMC Genomics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/6/2015
Publication Date: 3/20/2015
Citation: Zhang, J., Song, Q., Cregan, P.B., Nelson, R.L., Wu, J., Jiang, G. 2015. Genome-wide association mapping of flowering time and maturity dates in early mature soybean germplasm. Biomed Central (BMC) Genomics. 16(1):217. doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1441-4.

Interpretive Summary: Genome Wide Association Analysis (GWAS) is a method that analyses sets of human, plant, animal or other living organisms with a large set of DNA markers that are spread across all the chromosomes of the species being analyzed. Data are also collected on the set of individuals for genetically controlled traits such as resistance to disease or in the case of the current study, days to flowering (DTF) and days to maturity (DTM) in 309 soybeans that had been collected in Asia over the past 60 years. Data on DTF and DTM were collected at three locations in South Dakota in 2011 and 2012. Using the combined DTF and DTM data, GWAS was applied to identify regions along the 20 pairs of soybean chromosomes that contain genes associated with DTF and DTM. A total of 28 chromosome regions were determined to be associated with DTF and six regions were associated with DTM. This study demonstrates that GWAS is an effective tool for dissection of complex traits in soybean. This information will be useful to scientists interested in the application of GWAS for gene discovery in soybean.

Technical Abstract: Soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) is a photoperiod-sensitive and short-day major crop grown worldwide. Days to flowering (DTF) and maturity (DTM) are two traits affecting soybean adaptability and yield. Some genes conditioning soybean flowering and maturity have been recently characterized. However, a large number of genes that may be related to flowering and maturity in soybean are still unrevealed according to comparative genomic analysis. To better understand the genetic architecture of these traits in soybean, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in an early maturity population consisting of 309 germplasm accessions genotyped with 42,509 SNPs. Twenty-eight flowering loci and six maturity loci were detected across the whole genome, explaining 66.2% and 34.3% of phenotypic variation, respectively. Genes of known function and candidate genes orthologous to Arabidopsis flowering genes were identified. This study demonstrates that GWAS is an effective tool for dissection of complex traits in soybean.