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.
Legumes are unique among plants as they can obtain nitrogen through symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia that form root nodules in the host plants. Therefore they are valuable crops for sustainable agriculture. Increasing nitrogen fixation efficiency is not only important for achieving better plant growth and yield, but it is also crucial for reducing the use of nitrogen fertilizer. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are another group of important beneficial microorganisms that form symbiotic relationships with legumes. AMF can promote host plant growth by providing mineral nutrients and improving the soil ecosystem. The trilateral legume-rhizobia-AMF symbiotic relationships also enhance plant development and tolerance against biotic and abiotic stresses. It is known that domestication and agricultural activities have led to the reduced genetic diversity of cultivated germplasms and higher sensitivity to nutrient deficiencies in crop plants, but how domestication has impacted the capability of legumes to establish beneficial associations with rhizospheric microbes (including rhizobia and fungi) is not well-studied. In this review, we will discuss the impacts of domestication and agricultural practices on the interactions between legumes and soil microbes, focusing on the effects on AMF and rhizobial symbioses and hence nutrient acquisition by host legumes. In addition, we will summarize the genes involved in legume-microbe interactions and studies that have contributed to a better understanding of legume symbiotic associations using metabolic modeling.
Legumes are the second most important family of crop plants. One defining feature of legumes is their unique ability to establish a nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbiosis with soil bacteria known as rhizobia. Since domestication from their wild relatives, crop legumes have been under intensive breeding to improve yield and other agronomic traits but with little attention paid to the belowground symbiosis traits. Theoretical models predict that domestication and breeding processes, coupled with high−input agricultural practices, might have reduced the capacity of crop legumes to achieve their full potential of nitrogen fixation symbiosis. Testing this prediction requires characterizing symbiosis traits in wild and breeding populations under both natural and cultivated environments using genetic, genomic, and ecological approaches. However, very few experimental studies have been dedicated to this area of research. Here, we review how legumes regulate their interactions with soil rhizobia and how domestication, breeding and agricultural practices might have affected nodulation capacity, nitrogen fixation efficiency, and the composition and function of rhizobial community. We also provide a perspective on how to improve legume-rhizobial symbiosis in sustainable agricultural systems.
Loss of pod shattering is one of the most important domestication-related traits in legume crops. The non-shattering phenotypes have been achieved either by disturbed formation of abscission layer between the valves, or by loss of helical tension in sclerenchyma of endocarp, that split open the pods to disperse the seeds. During domestication, azuki bean (Vigna angularis) and yard-long bean (Vigna unguiculata cv-gr. Sesquipedalis) have reduced or lost the sclerenchyma and thus the shattering behavior of seed pods. Here we performed fine-mapping with backcrossed populations and narrowed the candidate genomic region down to 4 kbp in azuki bean and 13 kbp in yard-long bean. Among the genes located in these regions, we found MYB26 genes encoded truncated proteins in azuki bean, yard-long bean, and even cowpea. As such, our findings indicate that independent domestication on the two legumes has selected the same locus for the same traits. We also argue that MYB26 could be a target gene for improving shattering phenotype in other legumes, such as soybean.
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.