The Institute of Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences took the lead in revealing the genome-wide characteristics of soybean geographical expansion and breeding

Recently, the soybean excellent gene resources excavation and innovation utilization team of the Institute of Crop Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, together with Nuohe Zhiyuan and the University of Georgia in the United States, proposed the evolutionary route of soybean by analyzing the whole genome characteristics of soybean geographical expansion and breeding, and excavated the candidate genes selected at different evolutionary stages of soybean, from which an important flowering gene GmSPA3c
was cloned.
On August 19, the results were reported
online in SCIENCE CHINA Life Sciences.

 

Researcher Qiu Lijuan introduced that China is the origin of soybeans, and more than 40,000 soybean germplasm resources have been collected in the national crop germplasm resource bank, which is the most abundant
in the world in terms of quantity and diversity.
The preliminary core germplasm constructed by the research team that can represent the genetic diversity of soybean germplasm resources in China laid a material foundation
for the analysis of the genome-wide characteristics of soybean geographical expansion and breeding.

 

In order to analyze the evolutionary history of soybeans, including early domestication, planting area expansion and genetic improvement, the research team selected 2214 representative soybean germplasm resources based on the constructed primary core germplasm, and used the genetic variation information based on genome resequencing to analyze the phylogenetic tree, population structure and population history, and proposed that the evolutionary route of wild and cultivated soybeans includes four stages
。 The first stage corresponds to the expansion of wild soybeans from the south to the north of China, the second stage is the domestication process of local varieties in the Yellow River Basin of China, the third stage is the expansion of local varieties from the Yellow River Basin of China to the south and north, and the fourth stage is the process of
local improvement.
The study found that in the expansion of soybean local varieties, genetic infiltration mainly came from local (homogeneous) wild soybean populations, rather than exotic wild soybean populations, indicating that the genetic infiltration of local wild soybeans promoted the adaptability
of local local local varieties.

 

Genomic signals
selected during the diffusion, domestication, expansion of endemic varieties, and subsequent improvements in wild soybeans have also been identified.
Considering the importance of flowering in soybean transmission and adaptation, the researchers focused on the analysis of candidate genes in the flowering regulatory pathway, and the results showed that flowering adaptation is a continuous process
.
Through gene editing, the researchers verified that GmSPA3c has the function of flowering regulation, which is speculated to be a candidate functional gene for the classical flowering gene
E7.
By analyzing the genome-wide characteristics of soybean geographical expansion and breeding, this study reveals the evolutionary history of soybean, laying a foundation
for making full use of soybean germplasm resources to explore excellent genetic resources on a large scale and breeding new varieties in a targeted manner.

 

Researcher Li Yinghui of the Institute of Sciences, Doctoral Student Qin Chao, Researcher Wang Li of shenzhen Institute of Agricultural Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Novo Zhiyuan Jiao Chengzhi are the co-first authors of the article; Lijuan Qiu, a researcher at the Institute of Sciences, Bin Liu, and Professor Scott A.
Jackson of the University of Georgia are the co-corresponding authors
of the article.
The research has been funded
by the National Key Research and Development Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Crop Germplasm Resources Platform, the Conservation of Crop Germplasm Resources, and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

 

Original link: https://doi.
org/10.
1007/s11427-022-2158-7