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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Genomics of Plants and the Phytoecosystem
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1484146
Identification of QTL for Branch Traits in Soybean (Glycine max L.) and Its Application in Genomic Selection
Provisionally accepted
Jun Wang 1,2*
Qiu Lijuan 2,3,4*
Jian Song 1*
Qichao Yang 1
Jing Wang 1,2 Yajun Xiong 1,2* Alu Mao 1,2* Zhiqing Zhang 1,2* Yijie Chen 1,2* Shirui Teng 1,2* Zhiyu Liu 1*- 1 College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
- 2 The Shennong Laboratory, Zhengzhou Henan, China
- 3 National Key Facility of Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 4 Key Laboratory for Crop Genetic Resources and Germplasm Enhancement, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
Branches are important for soybean yield, and previous studies examining branch traits have primarily focused on branch number (BN), while research assessing branch internode number (BIN), branch length (BL), and branch internode length (BIL) remains insufficient. In this study, four branch traits were phenotypically analyzed using the F6-F9 generations of a RIL population consisting of 364 lines. Among these four traits, BL exhibited the strongest correlation with BIN (0.92), and BIN exhibited the strongest broad-sense heritability (0.89). Furthermore, 99, 43, 50, and 59 QTL were associated with BN, BIN, BL, and BIL, respectively, based on four different methods, and a major QTL region (Chr10:45,050,047..46,781,943) was strongly and simultaneously associated with all four branch traits. For the 207 genes within this region, nine genes were retained as candidates after SNP variation analysis, fixation index (FST), spatial and temporal expression analyses and functionality assessment that involved the regulation of phytohormones, transcription factors, cell wall and cell wall cellulose synthesis. Genomic selection (GS) prediction accuracies for BN, BIN, BL, and BIL in the different environments were 0.59, 0.49, 0.48, and 0.56, respectively, according to GBLUP. This study lays the genetic foundation for BN, BIN, BL, and BIL and provides a reference for functional validation of regulatory genes in the future.
Keywords: Soybean, branch, QTL, candidate gene, genomic selection
Received: 21 Aug 2024; Accepted: 06 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Lijuan, Song, Yang, Wang, Xiong, Mao, Zhang, Chen, Teng and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jun Wang, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
Qiu Lijuan, The Shennong Laboratory, Zhengzhou Henan, China
Jian Song, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
Yajun Xiong, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
Alu Mao, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
Zhiqing Zhang, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
Yijie Chen, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
Shirui Teng, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
Zhiyu Liu, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
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