Wild relatives of crops are an important source of genetic diversity for agriculture, but their gene repertoire remains largely unexplored. We report the establishment and analysis of a pan-genome of Glycine soja, the wild relative of cultivated soybean Glycine max, by sequencing and de novo assembly of seven phylogenetically and geographically representative accessions. Intergenomic comparisons identified lineage-specific genes and genes with copy number variation or large-effect mutations, some of which show evidence of positive selection and may contribute to variation of agronomic traits such as biotic resistance, seed composition, flowering and maturity time, organ size and final biomass. Approximately 80% of the pan-genome was present in all seven accessions (core), whereas the rest was dispensable and exhibited greater variation than the core genome, perhaps reflecting a role in adaptation to diverse environments. This work will facilitate the harnessing of untapped genetic diversity from wild soybean for enhancement of elite cultivars.

Similar to Arabidopsis thaliana, the wild soybeans (Glycine soja) and many cultivars exhibit indeterminate stem growth specified by the shoot identity gene Dt1, the functional counterpart of Arabidopsis TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1). Mutations in TFL1 and Dt1 both result in the shoot apical meristem (SAM) switching from vegetative to reproductive state to initiate terminal flowering and thus produce determinate stems. A second soybean gene (Dt2) regulating stem growth was identified, which, in the presence of Dt1, produces semideterminate plants with terminal racemes similar to those observed in determinate plants. Here, we report positional cloning and characterization of Dt2, a dominant MADS domain factor gene classified into the APETALA1/SQUAMOSA (AP1/SQUA) subfamily that includes floral meristem (FM) identity genes AP1, FUL, and CAL in Arabidopsis. Unlike AP1, whose expression is limited to FMs in which the expression of TFL1 is repressed, Dt2 appears to repress the expression of Dt1 in the SAMs to promote early conversion of the SAMs into reproductive inflorescences. Given that Dt2 is not the gene most closely related to AP1 and that semideterminacy is rarely seen in wild soybeans, Dt2 appears to be a recent gain-of-function mutation, which has modified the genetic pathways determining the stem growth habit in soybean.

Comparative genomics is a powerful tool to decipher gene and genome evolution. Placing multiple genome comparisons in a phylogenetic context improves the sensitivity of evolutionary inferences. In the genus Oryza, this comparative approach can be used to investigate gene function, genome evolution, domestication, polyploidy, and ecological adaptation. A large genomic region surrounding the MONOCULM1 (MOC1) locus was chosen for study in 14 Oryza species, including 10 diploids and 4 allotetraploids. Sequencing and annotation of 18 bacterial artificial chromosome clones for these species revealed highly conserved gene colinearity and structure in the MOC1 region. Since the Oryza radiation about 14 Mya, differences in transposon amplification appear to be responsible for the different current sizes of the Oryza genomes. In the MOC1 region, transposons were only conserved between genomes of the same type (e.g., AA or BB). In addition to the conserved gene content, several apparent genes have been generated de novo or uniquely retained in the AA lineage. Two different 3-gene segments have been inserted into the MOC1 region of O. coarctata (KK) or O. sativa by unknown mechanism(s). Large and apparently noncoding sequences flanking the MOC1 gene were observed to be under strong purifying selection. The allotetraploids Oryza alta and Oryza minuta were found to be products of recent polyploidization, less than 1.6 and 0.4 Mya, respectively. In allotetraploids, pseudogenization of duplicated genes was common, caused by large deletions, small frame-shifting insertions/deletions, or nonsense mutations.comparative genomics ͉ genome evolution ͉ microcolinearity ͉ allotetraploid ͉ conserved noncoding sequence