AUTHOR=Perfil`ev Roman , Shcherban Andrey , Potapov Dmitriy , Maksimenko Konstantin , Kiryukhin Sergey , Gurinovich Sergey , Panarina Veronika , Polyudina Revmira , Salina Elena 

TITLE=Genome-wide association study revealed some new candidate genes associated with flowering and maturity time of soybean in Central and West Siberian regions of Russia

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2024.1463121

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2024.1463121

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>The duration of flowering and maturity is an important agricultural trait determining the suitability of a variety for cultivation in the target region. In the present study, we used genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) to search for loci associated with soybean flowering and maturity in the Central and West Siberian regions of Russia. A field experiment was conducted in 2021/2022 at two locations (Orel and Novosibirsk). A germplasm collection of 180 accessions was genotyped using SoySNP50K Illumina Infinium Bead-Chip. From the initial collection, we selected 129 unrelated accessions and conducted GWAS on this dataset using two multi-locus models: FarmCPU and BLINK. As a result, we identified 13 loci previously reported to be associated with duration of soybean development, and 17 new loci. 33 candidate genes were detected in these loci using analysis of co-expression, gene ontology, and literature data, with the best candidates being <italic>Glyma.03G177500, Glyma.13G177400</italic>, and <italic>Glyma.06G213100</italic>. These candidate genes code the Arabidopis orthologs <italic>TOE1</italic> (<italic>TARGET OF EAT 1</italic>), <italic>SPL3</italic> (<italic>SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN LIKE 3</italic>), the DELLA protein, respectively. In these three genes, we found haplotypes which may be associated with the length of soybean flowering and maturity, providing soybean adaptation to a northern latitudes.</p>