The Ionome of a Genetically Diverse Set of Wild Soybean Accessions

Abstract

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] provides oil and protein for fuel, food, and feed around the world. The limited genetic diversity of domesticated soybean threatens future yield and limits breeders' ability to optimize the nutrient composition of soybean. Glycine soja (L.) Merr. is a wild relative of soybean that is substantially more genetically and phenotypically diverse than domesticated soybean. Breeding advances have overcome many of the challenges of breeding with G. soja. Genomics and publicly available marker data facilitated the identification of a genetically diverse core set from the USDA G. soja germplasm collection and allowed the identification of progeny that capture the valuable genetic diversity present in the wild germplasm. Valuable seed composition traits have been identified among wild soybean accessions. We extend these observations to include the seed ionome of 84 wild soybean accessions. Measurement of the concentrations of 19 elements from wild soybean seeds and 13 G. max accessions from multiple environments show that 17 of the element levels have a range of heritabilities and are substantially influenced by the environment. The average concentrations of many elements were higher in the wild soybean than domesticated soybean and also varied among maturity groups. Genetic markers potentially associated with improved mineral composition of Glycine seed have also been identified. This variation may be sufficient to improve mineral content of soy meal. Notably, S concentrations were higher in G. soja, and S levels correlate with total protein levels and S‐containing amino acids. These observations may be used by breeders to improve seed composition of soybean.

A comparative approach for selecting orthologous candidate genes underlying signal in genome-wide association studies across multiple species

“…FDRs differed by element accumulation trait and species combinations. Generally, high-likelihood candidates were observed for elements with a previously demonstrated high heritability [66][67][68][69][70]. These elements also had ortholog groups with GWAS hits in all five species: Cd, Ca, Fe, Mn, and Mo (Fig 5).…”

Parental choice and seed size impact the uprightness of progeny from interspecific Glycine hybridizations

“…are preserved in the USDA collection. Wild soybean is an important genetic resource to improve abiotic stress resistance, seed protein content, and nutritional quality (Diers et al., 1992; Hesler & Taliercio, 2020; Hesler et al., 2021; La et al., 2019; Seversike et al., 2014; Taliercio et al., 2019; Waldeck et al., 2017). However, it is challenging to include wild soybean in an applied breeding program.…”

Brassicales to Brassica : integrating phylogenomics and population genomics

“…The minerals (or elements) that plants extract from the soil are important for almost every plant function. For example, sulfur is required to produce the universal amino acids methionine and cysteine (Taliercio et al 2019). Additionally, other elements play vital roles as enzyme cofactors in metabolic processes (Lavres et al 2016;Weisany et al 2013), including photosynthesis (Semin et al 2018;Zhao et al 2018).…”

“…Ionomics allows for the simultaneous measurement of the elemental composition of an organism for any given tissue (Salt et al 2008). Previous studies have leveraged ionomics combined with genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify underlying genetic factors responsible for differences in elemental accumulation in seeds (Ziegler et al 2018;Taliercio et al 2019) and shoots (Dhanapal et al 2018) of soybean using diversity panels.…”