Natural variation and selection in GmSWEET39 affect soybean seed oil content

Reference Report for AP20210727.2

Title:	Natural variation and selection in GmSWEET39 affect soybean seed oil content
Authors:	Miao, L., Yang, S., Zhang, K., He, J., Wu, C., Ren, Y., Gai, J., Li, Y.
Source:	Miao et al. 2020 New Phytol., 225:1651-1666
Abstract:	Soybean (Glycine max) is a major contributor to the world oilseed production. Its seed oil content has been increased through soybean domestication and improvement. However, the genes underlying the selection are largely unknown. The present contribution analyzed the expression patterns of genes in the seed oil quantitative trait loci with strong selective sweep signals, then used association, functional study and population genetics to reveal a sucrose efflux transporter gene,GmSWEET39, controlling soybean seed oil content and under selection. GmSWEET39is highly expressed in soybean seeds and encodes a plasma membrane-localized protein. Its expression level is positively correlated with soybean seed oil content. The variation in its promoter and coding sequence leads to different natural alleles of this gene. TheGmSWEET39allelic effects on total oil content were confirmed in the seeds of soybean recombinant inbred lines, transgenic Arabidopsis, and transgenic soybean hairy roots. The frequencies of its superior alleles increased from wild soybean to cultivated soybean, and are much higher in released soybean cultivars. The findings herein suggest that the sequence variation inGmSWEET39affects its relative expression and oil content in soybean seeds, andGmSWEET39has been selected to increase seed oil content during soybean domestication and improvement.

Funded by the USDA-ARS. Developed by the USDA-ARS SoyBase and Legume Clade Database group at the Iowa State University, Ames, IA

U.S. Public Domain