AUTHOR=Dietz Nicholas , Chan Yen On , Scaboo Andrew , Graef George , Hyten David , Happ Mary , Diers Brian , Lorenz Aaron , Wang Dechun , Joshi Trupti , Bilyeu Kristin TITLE=Candidate Genes Modulating Reproductive Timing in Elite US Soybean Lines Identified in Soybean Alleles of Arabidopsis Flowering Orthologs With Divergent Latitude Distribution JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.889066 DOI=10.3389/fpls.2022.889066 ISSN=1664-462X ABSTRACT=

Adaptation of soybean cultivars to the photoperiod in which they are grown is critical for optimizing plant yield. However, despite its importance, only the major loci conferring variation in flowering time and maturity of US soybean have been isolated. By contrast, over 200 genes contributing to floral induction in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana have been described. In this work, putative alleles of a library of soybean orthologs of these Arabidopsis flowering genes were tested for their latitudinal distribution among elite US soybean lines developed in the United States. Furthermore, variants comprising the alleles of genes with significant differences in latitudinal distribution were assessed for amino acid conservation across disparate genera to infer their impact on gene function. From these efforts, several candidate genes from various biological pathways were identified that are likely being exploited toward adaptation of US soybean to various maturity groups.