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Agricultural production is greatly dependent on daylength, which is determined by latitude. Living organisms align their physiology to daylength through the circadian clock, which is made up of input sensors, core and peripheral clock components, and output. The light/dark cycle is the major input signal, moderated by temperature fluctuations and metabolic changes. The core clock in plants functions mainly through a number of transcription feedback loops. It is known that the circadian clock is not essential for survival. However, alterations in the clock components can lead to substantial changes in physiology. Thus, these clock components have become the de facto targets of artificial selection for crop improvement during domestication. Soybean was domesticated around 5,000 years ago. Although the circadian clock itself is not of particular interest to soybean breeders, specific alleles of the circadian clock components that affect agronomic traits, such as plant architecture, sensitivity to light/dark cycle, flowering time, maturation time, and yield, are. Consequently, compared to their wild relatives, cultivated soybeans have been bred to be more adaptive and productive at different latitudes and habitats for acreage expansion, even though the selection processes were made without any prior knowledge of the circadian clock. Now with the advances in comparative genomics, known modifications in the circadian clock component genes in cultivated soybean have been found, supporting the hypothesis that modifications of the clock are important for crop improvement. In this review, we will summarize the known modifications in soybean circadian clock components as a result of domestication and improvement. In addition to the well-studied effects on developmental timing, we will also discuss the potential of circadian clock modifications for improving other aspects of soybean productivity.

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Mini Review
18 August 2020
Phylogenetic analysis of Mesorhizobium strains sampled across the chickpea’s native and introduced ranges (Greenlon et al., 2019). (A) Geographic locations (countries) where the strains were sampled, including the chickpea’s domestication center, Turkey. (B) A phylogenetic diagram showing clustering of bacterial strains from the native and introduced ranges under the dispersal (co-introduction) model. (C) A phylogenetic diagram showing that bacterial strains would cluster based on their geographic locations and show a biogeographical pattern if the domesticated plants acquired novel symbionts in their introduced locations. (D) If both co-introduction and co-adaptation happened, the tree would show mixed patterns of (A) and (B), which is the case revealed by the study of chickpea’s symbionts (Greenlon et al., 2019). Trees are not drawn in scale. (E) Strains in the introduced ranges might have acquired symbiosis genes from dispersed strains and subsequently became adapted and outcompeted the dispersal strains. Chromosomal symbiosis genes in Mesorhizobium are encoded on mobile integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs). ICEs can excise from the chromosome that can transfer and integrate into the chromosome of a recipient strain.
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Two-dimensional PCA scatter plot of the common bean germplasm resources in Chongqing. —Pop I; —Pop II; —Pop III; —Pop IV.
Original Research
08 July 2020

In this study, the genetic diversity of 115 common bean germplasm resources collected from 27 counties in Chongqing over 3 years (2015–2017) was assessed. The results showed that the genetic diversity of the common bean germplasm resources was high, with an average diversity index of 1.447. The diversity of the qualitative traits of each organ was ranked as seed (H′ = 1.40) > pod (H′ = 1.062) > plant (H′ = 0.64) > leaf (H′ = 0.565), while the diversity of the quantitative traits of each organ was ranked as seed (H′ = 2.021) > pod (H′ = 1.989) > phenology (H′ = 1.941) > plant (H′ = 1.646). In the cluster analysis, 115 accessions were clustered into four groups. The accessions in the first and fourth group were characteristic of the Andean gene pool, while the accessions in the second group were characteristic of the Mesoamerican gene pool. However, the accessions of the third group possessed the combined characteristics of both gene pools and were thus classified as introgressed type. Four principal components represented 40.30% of the morphological diversity, with the first principal component representing the traits associated with plant growth; the second principal component representing flower characteristics; the third principal component being composed of seed characters; and the fourth principal component representing pod characteristics. The common bean germplasm resources are widely distributed in Chongqing, and the introgressed types are more prevalent in this region than elsewhere, with a rich genetic diversity and high utilization value in genetic breeding.

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