AUTHOR=Kumawat Giriraj , Cao Dong , Park Cheolwoo , Xu Donghe 

TITLE=C-terminally encoded peptide-like genes are associated with the development of primary root at qRL16.1 in soybean

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2024.1387954

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2024.1387954

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Root architecture traits are belowground traits that harness moisture and nutrients from the soil and are equally important to above-ground traits in crop improvement. In soybean, the root length locus <italic>qRL16.1</italic> was previously mapped on chromosome 16. The <italic>qRL16.1</italic> has been characterized by transcriptome analysis of roots in near-isogenic lines (NILs), gene expression analysis in a pair of lines contrasting with alleles of <italic>qRL16.1</italic>, and differential gene expression analysis in germplasm accessions contrasting with root length. Two candidate genes, <italic>Glyma.16g108500</italic> and <italic>Glyma.16g108700</italic>, have shown relatively higher expression in longer root accessions than in shorter rooting accessions. The C-terminal domain of <italic>Glyma.16g108500</italic> and <italic>Glyma.16g108700</italic> is similar to the conserved domain of C-terminally encoded peptides (CEPs) that regulate root length and nutrient response in Arabidopsis. Two polymorphisms upstream of <italic>Glyma.16g108500</italic> showed a significant association with primary root length and total root length traits in a germplasm set. Synthetic peptide assay with predicted CEP variants of <italic>Glyma.16g108500</italic> and <italic>Glyma.16g108700</italic> demonstrated their positive effect on primary root length. The two genes are root-specific in the early stage of soybean growth and showed differential expression only in the primary root. These genes will be useful for improving soybean to develop a deep and robust root system to withstand low moisture and nutrient regimes.</p>