Molecular breeding for improvement of photothermal adaptability in soybean

Tingting Wu; Sijia Lu; Yupeng Cai; Xin Xu; Lixin Zhang; Fulu Chen; Bingjun Jiang; Honglei Zhang; Shi Sun; Hong Zhai; Lin Zhao; Zhengjun Xia; Wensheng Hou; Fanjiang Kong; Tianfu Han

doi:10.1007/s11032-023-01406-z

Molecular breeding for improvement of photothermal adaptability in soybean

Mol Breed. 2023 Jul 24;43(8):60. doi: 10.1007/s11032-023-01406-z. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Authors

Tingting Wu^#¹, Sijia Lu^#², Yupeng Cai^#¹, Xin Xu¹, Lixin Zhang¹, Fulu Chen¹, Bingjun Jiang¹, Honglei Zhang¹, Shi Sun¹, Hong Zhai³, Lin Zhao⁴, Zhengjun Xia³, Wensheng Hou¹, Fanjiang Kong², Tianfu Han¹

Affiliations

¹ MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081 China.
² Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Editing, Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006 China.
³ Key Laboratory of Soybean Molecular Design Breeding, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin, 150081 China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Ministry of Education of China, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030 China.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 37496825
PMCID: PMC10366068 (available on 2024-07-24)
DOI: 10.1007/s11032-023-01406-z

Abstract

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is a typical short-day and temperate crop that is sensitive to photoperiod and temperature. Responses of soybean to photothermal conditions determine plant growth and development, which affect its architecture, yield formation, and capacity for geographic adaptation. Flowering time, maturity, and other traits associated with photothermal adaptability are controlled by multiple major-effect and minor-effect genes and genotype-by-environment interactions. Genetic studies have identified at least 11 loci (E1-E4, E6-E11, and J) that participate in photoperiodic regulation of flowering time and maturity in soybean. Molecular cloning and characterization of major-effect flowering genes have clarified the photoperiod-dependent flowering pathway, in which the photoreceptor gene phytochrome A, circadian evening complex (EC) components, central flowering repressor E1, and FLOWERING LOCUS T family genes play key roles in regulation of flowering time, maturity, and adaptability to photothermal conditions. Here, we provide an overview of recent progress in genetic and molecular analysis of traits associated with photothermal adaptability, summarizing advances in molecular breeding practices and tools for improving these traits. Furthermore, we discuss methods for breeding soybean varieties with better adaptability to specific ecological regions, with emphasis on a novel strategy, the Potalaization model, which allows breeding of widely adapted soybean varieties through the use of multiple molecular tools in existing elite widely adapted varieties.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11032-023-01406-z.

Keywords: Adaptability; Molecular breeding; Photoperiod; Soybean; Temperature.

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