title: Molecular and geographic evolutionary support for the essential role of GIGANTEAa in soybean domestication of flowering time.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Flowering time is a domestication trait of Glycine max and varies in soybeans, yet, a gene for flowering time variation has not been associated with soybean domestication. GIGANTEA (GI) is a major gene involved in the control of flowering time in Arabidopsis, although three GI homologs complicate this model in the soybean genome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the present work, we revealed that the geographic evolution of the GIGANTEAa (GIa) haplotypes in G. max (GmGIa) and Glycine soja (GsGIa). Three GIa haplotypes (H1, H2, and H3) were found among cultivated soybeans and their wild relatives, yet an additional 44 diverse haplotypes were observed in wild soybeans. H1 had a premature stop codon in the 10(th) exon, whereas the other haplotypes encoded full-length GIa protein isoforms. In both wild-type and cultivated soybeans, H2 was present in the Southern region of China, and H3 was restricted to areas near the Northeast region of China. H1 was genetically derived from H2, and it was dominant and widely distributed among cultivated soybeans, whereas in wild populations, the ortholog of this domesticated haplotype H1 was only found in Yellow River basin with a low frequency. Moreover, this mutated GIa haplotype significantly correlated with early flowering. We further determined that the differences in gene expression of the three GmGIa haplotypes were not correlated to flowering time variations in cultivated soybeans. However, only the truncated GmGIa H1 could partially rescue gi-2 Arabidopsis from delayed flowering in transgenic plants, whereas both GmGIa H2 and H3 haplotypes could significantly repress flowering in transgenic Arabidopsis with a wild-type background.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, GmGIa haplotype diversification may have contributed to flowering time adaptation that facilitated the radiation of domesticated soybeans. In light of the evolution of the GIa gene, soybean domestication history for an early flowering phenotype is discussed.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanxincun 20, Xiangshan, 100093, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanxincun 20, Xiangshan, 100093, Beijing, China.|Graduate University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquan Road 19, 100049, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yongzhe
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanxincun 20, Xiangshan, 100093, Beijing, China.|Graduate University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquan Road 19, 100049, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Huihui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: The National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement (NFCRI)/Key Lab of Germplasm Utilization (MOA), Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 100081, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lijuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: The National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement (NFCRI)/Key Lab of Germplasm Utilization (MOA), Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 100081, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ruzhen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Plant Genomic, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of sciences, 100101, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shouyi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanxincun 20, Xiangshan, 100093, Beijing, China. chaoying@ibcas.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Chaoying
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002681:China; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D035264:Flowers / Q000502:physiology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes; D000069600:Plant Breeding; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D013025:Glycine max / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins
keywords: Domestication; Evolution; Flowering time; GIGANTEA; Haplotype; Soybean