Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Plant Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #416559

Research Project: Improving Soybean Seed Composition, Plant Productivity, and Resilience to Climate Change Through Biological Network Modification

Location: Plant Genetics Research

Title: Identification and characterization of a temperature sensitive chlorotic soybean mutant

Author
item HANCOCK, NATHAN - University Of South Carolina
item GERMANY, TETANDIANOCEE - University Of South Carolina
item REDD, PRISCILLA - University Of South Carolina
item TIMMONS, JACK - University Of South Carolina
item LIPFORD, JEFFREY - University Of South Carolina
item BURNS, SAMANTHA - University Of South Carolina
item HANCOCK, LIA - University Of South Carolina
item CERVANTES-PEREZ, SERGIO - University Of South Carolina
item LIBAULT, MARK - University Of Missouri
item SHEN, WENHAO - Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
item An, Yong-Qiang - Charles
item KANIZAY, LISA - University Of Georgia
item YERKA, MELINDA - University Of Nevada
item PARROTT, WAYNE - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: Plant Direct
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/25/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Soybean is an important crop in the US and the world. It provides a rich source of plant-based protein and oil for food, feed, and various industrial applications. Soybean is one of the few major crops with the ability to fix nitrogen. Therefore, soybean is emerging as an ideal crop to address global food security, nutritional needs, and sustainable agriculture in the next generation. This study discovered a temperature sensitive chlorotic soybean mutant with a smaller stature, weaker stems, and a smaller root system. Having applied a combination of molecular biology, genetics, genomics and data science approaches, we discovered the gene and gene mutation responsible for the phenotypic changes. Knowledge genes controlling stature is valuable for researchers to engineer soybean photosynthesis, stature and root systems to increase soybean productivity and resilience to climate change.

Technical Abstract: Screening a collection of mutagenized soybean lines discovered a chlorotic mutant with a smaller stature, weaker stems, and a smaller root system. Genome sequencing and molecular characterization identified 15 genes as candidates for the causal gene. Amplicon sequencing of a segregating population identified a single-nucleotide mutant that disrupts splicing of the second intron of a Glyma.07G102300 (annotated as Cytochrome P450). Single-cell transcriptomic analysis showed that this gene is expressed preferentially in mesophyll cells. We also showed that the gene is upregulated by cold stress in germinating seedlings, consistent with a previous report that cool treatment increases the severity of the chlorotic phenotype caused by mutation of its homologous gene in rice mutant. Lower temperature also caused a more severe phenotype in the soybean mutant. Transgenic expression of its wild-type allele can functionally rescue the chlorotic phenotype in its Arabidopsis mutant, further supporting that the gene and the single nucleotide mutation are responsible for the phenotypic changes in the soybean mutant.