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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Differentiation and evolution among geographic and seasonal eco-populations of soybean germplasm in Southern China

Zhipeng Zhang A , Weiying Zeng B , Zhaoyan Cai B , Zhenguang Lai B , Yanzhu Su A , Guangnan Xing A , Wubin Wang A , Zudong Sun B C and Junyi Gai https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6222-2010 A C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Soybean Research Institute, Nanjing Agricultural University, MARA National Center for Soybean Improvement, MARA Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Soybean, National Key Laboratory for Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210095, China.

B Institute of Economic Crops, Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanning, Guangxi 530007, China.

C Corresponding authors. Email: sunzudong639@163.com; sri@njau.edu.cn

Crop and Pasture Science 70(2) 121-132 https://doi.org/10.1071/CP18459
Submitted: 11 April 2018  Accepted: 9 December 2018   Published: 4 February 2019

Abstract

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) germplasm in Southern China is extremely diverse. In order to explore the differentiation and evolution among geographic sowing-seasonal ecotypes of the Southern China Soybean Germplasm Population (SCSGP), we tested a sample set of accessions comprising 359 of the spring-sowing (SP) ecotype and 341 of the summer–autumn-sowing (SA) ecotype for their flowering date and sensitivity to seasonal photo-thermal changes in Nanning, Guangxi, China. The sample set and another 175 wild annual accessions were genotyped with 60 representative simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The SCSGP is characterised by its geographic differentiation (four geo-regional ecotypes), especially its sowing-seasonal differentiation (SA and SP ecotypes), and their combinations (eight geo-seasonal eco-populations). The ecological differentiation coincided with genetic differentiation in terms of allele richness and genetic distance. Neighbour-joining clustering among accessions by using SSRs indicated SA varieties to be the primitive ecotype relative to SP. The SA ecotype of Eco-region III (SA-III) was the most primitive among the eight geo-seasonal eco-populations, from which evolved SA-IV, and then SA-VI and SA-V. The SP ecotype was mainly evolved from its older SA counterpart, starting from SP-III emerging from SA-III accompanied by its introduction to Eco-region IV and other boarder regions. The evolutionary relationship among the geo-seasonal eco-populations was validated further with the analysis of multi-population specific-present alleles, which supports the hypothesis of Southern China origin of cultivated soybeans.

Additional keywords: allele-richness, cluster analysis.


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