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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Soybean Genomics & Improvement Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #315400
Title: Environmental adaptation in wild soybeans (Glycine soja) across their native geographic range in northeast Asia

Author
item LEAMY, LARRY - University Of North Carolina
item LEE, CHENG-RUI - Gregor Mendel Institute
item MJUACIC, IBRO - University Of North Carolina
item Quigley, Charles - Chuck
item Nelson, Randall
item LUO, YAN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item CHEN, YIWU - Auburn University
item Peregrine, Esther
item SONG, BAO-HUA - University Of North Carolina

Submitted to: Ecology and Evolution
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/22/2016
Publication Date: 7/2/2016
Citation: Leamy, L.J., Lee, C., Mjuacic, I., Quigley, C.V., Nelson, R.L., Luo, Y., Chen, Y., Peregrine, E.K., Song, B. 2016. Environmental adaptation in wild soybeans (Glycine soja) across their native geographic range in northeast Asia. Ecology and Evolution. 6(17):6332-6344.

Interpretive Summary: Understanding the genetic basis of adaptive variation and the importance of the forces that shape diversity in natural populations are long-standing goals in evolutionary biology. The wild soybean is native to China, Korea, Japan, and Russia, it is reasonable to presume that this species has long been adapted to a wide range of geographical, climatic, and biotic environments. Our objective was to determine the climatic variables that have contributed to differences among the wild soybean groups as well as the key genes involved in environmental adaptation in these groups. We sampled 99 wild soybeans across Northeast Asia and analyzed with 42,000 molecular markers for each accession. Various statistical analyses showed that wild soybean from China, Korea, Japan, and Russia were differentiated by climatic factors, especially temperature and precipitation as well as the interaction of climate and geography. We identified 31 candidate genes potentially selected for climatic adaptation. The result helps us to better understand the effects of climatic and geographic factors on the adaptation process of soybean.

Technical Abstract: Understanding the genetic basis of adaptive variation and the forces that shape this diversity in natural populations are long-standing goals in evolutionary biology. The wild soybean (Glycine soja), from which domesticated soybeans (Glycine max) were derived, is widely distributed throughout a diversity of habitats in East Asia (Russia, Japan, Korea and China). Because of the heterogeneity observed in landscape features throughout the range, it is likely that natural selection has played an important role in the genetic divergence in this species. Here we utilize multivariate statistical techniques to identify the climate factors that have shaped genetic variation in 99 accessions of wild soybeans sampled across their native geographic range in northeast Asia. Using over 42,000 SNPS genotyped in these accessions, STRUCTURE and PCA analyses identified four distinct genetic soybean groups, and canonical correlation and correspondence analyses showed that the four groups were differentiated by climatic factors (temperature and precipitation) and the interaction of climate and geography. For two closely related genetic groups, JAPAN and KOREA, we also used a genome scan of outlier loci to identify candidate genes potentially selected for climatic adaptation. This scan resulted in a total of 32 known genes with diverse functions, 7 of which are involved in various abiotic stress responses.