Genome-wide association study revealed some new candidate genes associated with flowering and maturity time of soybean in Central and West Siberian regions of Russia

The duration of flowering and maturity is an important agricultural trait determining the suitability of a variety for cultivation in the target region. In the present study, we used genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) to search for loci associated with soybean flowering and maturity in the Central and West Siberian regions of Russia. A field experiment was conducted in 2021/2022 at two locations (Orel and Novosibirsk). A germplasm collection of 180 accessions was genotyped using SoySNP50K Illumina Infinium Bead-Chip. From the initial collection, we selected 129 unrelated accessions and conducted GWAS on this dataset using two multi-locus models: FarmCPU and BLINK. As a result, we identified 13 loci previously reported to be associated with duration of soybean development, and 17 new loci. 33 candidate genes were detected in these loci using analysis of co-expression, gene ontology, and literature data, with the best candidates being <i>Glyma.03G177500, Glyma.13G177400</i>, and <i>Glyma.06G213100</i>. These candidate genes code the Arabidopis orthologs <i>TOE1</i> (<i>TARGET OF EAT 1</i>), <i>SPL3</i> (<i>SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN LIKE 3</i>), the DELLA protein, respectively. In these three genes, we found haplotypes which may be associated with the length of soybean flowering and maturity, providing soybean adaptation to a northern latitudes.