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Soybean is a major plant protein source for both human food and animal feed, but to meet global demands as well as a trend towards regional production, soybean cultivation needs to be expanded to higher latitudes. In this study, we developed a large diversity panel consisting of 1503 early-maturing soybean lines and used genome-wide association mapping to dissect the genetic architecture underlying two crucial adaptation traits, flowering time and maturity. This revealed several known maturity loci, E1 , E2 , E3 , and E4 , and the growth habit locus Dt2 as causal candidate loci, and also a novel putative causal locus, GmFRL1 , encoding a homolog of the vernalization pathway gene FRIGIDA-like 1. In addition, the scan for quantitative trait locus (QTL)-by-environment interactions identified GmAPETALA1d as a candidate gene for a QTL with environment-dependent reversed allelic effects. The polymorphisms of these candidate genes were identified using whole-genome resequencing data of 338 soybeans, which also revealed a novel E4 variant, e4-par , carried by 11 lines, with nine of them originating from Central Europe. Collectively, our results illustrate how combinations of QTL and their interactions with the environment facilitate the photothermal adaptation of soybean to regions far beyond its center of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing soybean yield plays a key role in meeting the high demand for protein in Europe and other countries. The aim of this study was to dissect the genetic architecture underlying seed yield, plant height, protein yield and thousand‐seed weight in early‐maturing soybean. To this end, we performed QTL mapping based on 944 RILs derived from a half‐diallel crossing design of five parents. We identified five to eight QTL for each of the four agronomic traits and some explained a considerable proportion of the genotypic variance. The three major QTL showed pleiotropic effects on two or more traits. Fine characterization revealed the maturity genes E1 and E3, and the stem growth habit gene Dt2 as likely candidates underlying these QTL. In general, the allele increasing seed yield also resulted in taller plants, which needs to be considered during selection due to an increased risk of lodging. Collectively, our results underline the strong effect of some loci like the E1 gene on a range of traits including seed yield, making them attractive targets for a marker‐assisted selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean cultivation holds great potential for a sustainable agriculture in Europe, but adaptation remains a central issue. In this large mega-environment (MEV) study, 75 European cultivars from five early maturity groups (MGs 000-II) were evaluated for maturity-related traits at 22 locations in 10 countries across Europe. Clustering of the locations based on phenotypic similarity revealed six MEVs in latitudinal direction and suggested several more. Analysis of maturity identified several groups of cultivars with phenotypic similarity that are optimally adapted to the different growing regions in Europe. We identified several haplotypes for the allelic variants at the E1, E2, E3 and E4 genes, with each E haplotype comprising cultivars from different MGs. Cultivars with the same E haplotype can exhibit different flowering and maturity characteristics, suggesting that the genetic control of these traits is more complex and that adaptation involves additional genetic pathways, for example temperature requirement. Taken together, our study allowed the first unified assessment of soybean-growing regions in Europe and illustrates the strong effect of photoperiod on soybean adaptation and MEV classification, as well as the effects of the E maturity loci for soybean adaptation in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message : Breeding of bread wheat in the last decades has maintained a high baking quality despite the intensive selection for grain yield. The quality trait sedimentation volume but not protein content is mainly controlled by the Glu - A1, Glu - B1, Glu - D1, Gli - B1 , and Pinb - D1 loci which are differentially used in varieties from different European origins. Abstract: Protein content and sedimentation volume are two important quality traits in wheat breeding. In this study, we used a panel of 407 European winter wheat cultivars to dissect the genetic architecture of both traits and to assess the potential of genomics-assisted breeding. All lines were phenotyped in multi-location field trials, genotyped by a genotyping-by-sequencing approach, and assessed for the alleles at the Glu- A1, Glu- B1, Glu- D1, Gli- B1, and Pinb- D1 candidate loci. Our analyses revealed no effect of the candidate loci on protein content, but a strong effect on sedimentation volume, with Glu- B1 and Gli- B1 explaining 24.6 and 19.5 % of the genotypic variance, respectively. The genome-wide scan identified three quantitative trait loci (QTL) for protein content which jointly explained only 18.5 % of the genotypic variance. In contrast, four QTL were detected for sedimentation volume most likely identifying the Glu- B1 and Gli- B1 candidate loci and explaining approximately 60 % of the genotypic variance. We observed differences for both traits between countries of origin of the cultivars, accompanied by corresponding geographic differences in QTL allele frequencies. Furthermore, a genome-wide prediction approach resulted in a higher predictive ability for both traits as compared to marker-assisted selection based on the identified QTL. Taken together, our results illustrate a different genetic architecture of the two quality traits and show the potential of their genomics-assisted improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]