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GWAS reveals two novel loci for photosynthesis-related traits in soybean

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Abstract

Photosynthesis plays an extremely important role throughout the life cycle of plants. Improving the photosynthetic rate is a major target for increasing crop productivity. This study was conducted to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with the net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Cond), intercellular carbon dioxide concentration (Ci) and transpiration rate (Trmmol) through genome-wide association study (GWAS) and to inspect the relationships among these traits in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). A population of 219 soybean accessions was used in this research. A total of 12 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with Pn, Cond, Ci and Trmmol were detected and distributed on chromosomes 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, and 19, and some of these QTL overlapped with previously reported QTLs. Furthermore, four candidate genes were identified, and there were significantly different expression levels between the high-light-efficiency accessions and low-light-efficiency accessions. These putative genes may participate in the regulation of photosynthesis through different metabolic pathways. Therefore, the associated novel QTLs and candidate genes detected in this study will provide a theoretical basis for genetic studies of photosynthesis and provide new avenues for crop improvement.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by Ministry of Science and Technology (2017YFE0111000), Key Transgenic Breeding Program of China (2016ZX08004-003, 2016ZX08009003-004) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31571688).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Center for Soybean Improvement, National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Li Wang, Yuming Yang, Shuyu Zhang, Wenjie Yuan & Deyue Yu

  2. School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Zhijun Che

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  1. Li Wang
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  2. Yuming Yang
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  3. Shuyu Zhang
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  6. Deyue Yu
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Contributions

DY and YY developed the experimental design; LW, YY and ZC conducted and validated the phenotypic experiments; YY analyzed the data; SZ and WY extracted RNA; LW wrote the manuscript; and all authors contributed to final review and acceptance of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Deyue Yu.

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Wang, L., Yang, Y., Zhang, S. et al. GWAS reveals two novel loci for photosynthesis-related traits in soybean. Mol Genet Genomics 295, 705–716 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-020-01661-1

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