Development of KASP markers assisted with soybean drought tolerance in the germination stage based on GWAS

Qianru Jia; Miaomiao Zhou; Yawen Xiong; Junyan Wang; Donghe Xu; Hongmei Zhang; Xiaoqing Liu; Wei Zhang; Qiong Wang; Xin Sun; Huatao Chen

doi:10.3389/fpls.2024.1352379

Development of KASP markers assisted with soybean drought tolerance in the germination stage based on GWAS

Front Plant Sci. 2024 Feb 15:15:1352379. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1352379. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Qianru Jia¹, Miaomiao Zhou¹, Yawen Xiong^{1

2}, Junyan Wang¹, Donghe Xu³, Hongmei Zhang¹, Xiaoqing Liu¹, Wei Zhang¹, Qiong Wang¹, Xin Sun¹, Huatao Chen^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Industrial Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China.
² College of Life Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
³ Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Tsukuba, Japan.
⁴ Zhongshan Biological Breeding Laboratory (ZSBBL), Nanjing, China.

Abstract

Soybean [Glycine max(L.)Merr.] is a leading oil-bearing crop and cultivated globally over a vast scale. The agricultural landscape in China faces a formidable challenge with drought significantly impacting soybean production. In this study, we treated a natural population of 264 Chinese soybean accessions using 15% PEG-6000 and used GR, GE, GI, RGR, RGE, RGI and ASFV as evaluation index. Using the ASFV, we screened 17 strong drought-tolerant soybean germplasm in the germination stage. Leveraging 2,597,425 high-density SNP markers, we conducted Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and identified 92 SNPs and 9 candidate genes significantly associated with drought tolerance. Furthermore, we developed two KASP markers for S14_5147797 and S18_53902767, which closely linked to drought tolerance. This research not only enriches the pool of soybean germplasm resources but also establishes a robust foundation for the molecular breeding of drought tolerance soybean varieties.

Keywords: GWAS; KASP; drought tolerance; germination stage; soybean.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by grants from Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent (2023ZB647), Project funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023M731401) and Zhongshan Biological Breeding Laboratory (ZSBBL).