Important progress has been made in the analysis of soybean-like genetic networks

between different complex shapes is a key scientific problem in molecular design breeding. Crop yield, quality and so on are mostly complex forms of multi-gene control, due to the influence of multi-effect and genetic chain burden, so that certain characters in different materials and breeding offspring in synergetic changes, showing coupling correlation. It is of great significance to molecular design and breeding to analyze the genetic regulatory network of complex intercoupling and to clarify the key regulatory units. Soybean is native to China and is a major source of human and animal fats and proteins. The study of the new system of efficient molecular design breeding is of great significance to the cultivation of new varieties of high-yielding high-quality soybeans.
Researcher Tian Zhixi of the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a researcher from The United Kingdom, Zhu Baoge, Zhang Zhiwu, a researcher at Washington State University, and other research teams have analyzed the genetic regulatory network between 84 agro-characteristics of soybeans in depth, providing an important theoretical basis for molecular design and breeding of soybeans. To analyze the intrinsic genetic regulation network between different agro-characteristics, the team first resequenced 809 soybean cultivation materials (with an average depth of about 8.3×) and analyzed their genetic diversity to clarify the group structure of these materials. Furthermore, 84 yield and quality features of 809 materials were observed for many years, and different degrees of correlation between different characters were found. Further, using genome-wide association analysis and combined with newly developed upper-level effect detection methods, the team conducted a systematic genome-wide scan of 84 personality-like regulatory bits, identified a total of 245 significant correlation bits, and found that 95 of them associated bits and other places have upper-level effects. On the one hand, these associated points are good at analyzing the genetic regulation of individual features. For example, for oil content correlation, a total of 24 fatty acid metabolism-related and 21 lipid metabolic-related genes were identified, and they were involved in different important enzymatic reactions. In-depth analysis revealed that these genes are used to regulate the formation of multiple soybean oily features through the addition effect. On the other hand, these correlation points reveal the genetic basis for coupling between different characteristics. According to the chain imbalance analysis, it is found that 115 associated points can be chained with each other, and the observed 51 personality traits are connected to form a complex multi-character multi-point regulation network, which explains the coupling relationship between different traits. The study also found that 23 of the associated bits played an important node role, played a key role in regulating the formation of different features, and verified the role of some of them in the coupling of different features.
this study provides an important theoretical basis for the molecular design and breeding of soybeans, which is very important for improving soybean quality and yield, and also provides reference for the study of other crop characteristic coupling. The paper was published online August 25, 2017 in
Journal (DOI: 10.1186/s13059-017-1289-9). Dr. Wu Shiwen, Ph.D. student of Tian Zhixi Research Group, and Dr. Wu Shiwen, postdoctoral student of Wang Dong Research Group, are co-authors of the thesis. The study was funded by projects such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences Strategic Pilot Research Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Washington Food Organization, washington State University's emerging research and development program. (Source: Science.com)