Genetic dissection of the relationship between plant architecture and yield component traits in soybean (Glycine max) by association analysis across multiple environments

Abstract

Plant architecture and yield components are critical for the determination of seed yield in soybean. In this study, we performed genetic association analysis to dissect the relationships between plant architecture and yield component traits. Two hundred and nineteen accessions were employed, and eight agronomic traits were evaluated in six environments. Our results revealed strong positive correlations of plant architecture traits with yield components and the significant association of 4 SNPs with plant architecture traits and of 7 SNPs with yield component traits in two or more environments. Eight SNPs were co-associated with two traits. Based on the phenotypic effects of the alleles of the detected SNPs, the best alleles were mined for twenty-three distinct SNPs. Fifteen typical carrier materials harbouring the best allele effects were also mined. Twenty parental combinations were proposed by pyramiding possible alleles per SNP in one individual (excluding possible epistatic effects). These proposed combinations with the best alleles and carrier materials will aid in the improvement of targeted traits and marker-assisted selection (MAS) efficiency in soybean breeding.