Abstract
Soybean is one of the most important oil crops in the world. Revealing the molecular basis and exploring key candidate genes for seed oil synthesis has great significance for soybean improvement. In this study, we found that oil accumulation rates and gene expression levels changed dynamically during soybean seed development. The expression levels of genes in metabolic pathways such as carbon fixation, photosynthesis, glycolysis, and fatty acid biosynthesis were significantly up-regulated during the rapid accumulation of oil in developing soybean seeds. Through weighted correlation network analysis, we identified six co-expression modules associated with soybean seed oil content and the pink module was the most positively correlated (r = 0.83, p = 7 × 10−4) network. Through the integration of differential expression and co-expression analysis, we predicted 124 candidate genes potentially affecting soybean seed oil content, including seven genes in lipid metabolism pathway, two genes involved in glycolysis, one gene in sucrose metabolism, and 12 genes belonged to transcription factors as well as other categories. Among these, three genes (GmABI3b, GmNFYA and GmFAD2-1B) have been shown to control oil and fatty acid content in soybean seeds, and other newly identified candidate genes would broaden our knowledge to understand the molecular basis for oil accumulation in soybean seeds.
Highlights
IntroductionMerr.) has been recognized as one of the most vital economic, as well as potential bioenergy crops
Combining the gene significance (GS) values greater than 0.8 in the three modules showing significant positive correlation with oil content, and log2|Fold change| greater than 2 (FDR < 0.05) comparing 20 days after flowering (DAF) with 10 DAF, totally we identified 124 candidate genes associated with soybean seed oil content, of which two genes, GmNFYA (Glyma.02G303800) [23] and GmFAD2-1B (Glyma.20G111000) [32] have been confirmed to control soybean seed fatty acid content in previous studies, and the other newly identified candidate genes would broaden our knowledge to understand the molecular basis for oil accumulation in soybean seeds
We investigated the dynamic changes in oil content and transcriptome in the developing seeds of soybean variety NN1138-2
Summary
Merr.) has been recognized as one of the most vital economic, as well as potential bioenergy crops. It provides a significant amount of protein for both humans and animals, and soybean seed oil is a significant source for vegetable oil and industrial materials. World soybean production in 2017 was over 340 million metric tons, and soybean oil accounts for 29% of world vegetable oil consumption (www.soystats.com). Due to the population growth, the demand for food oil continues to grow. Increasing soybean oil content has become an important topic in scientific research and a key target trait for soybean breeders
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