title: A soybean quantitative trait locus that promotes flowering under long days is identified as FT5a, a FLOWERING LOCUS T ortholog.
abstract: FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) is an important floral integrator whose functions are conserved across plant species. In soybean, two orthologs, FT2a and FT5a, play a major role in initiating flowering. Their expression in response to different photoperiods is controlled by allelic combinations at the maturity loci E1 to E4, generating variation in flowering time among cultivars. We determined the molecular basis of a quantitative trait locus (QTL) for flowering time in linkage group J (Chromosome 16). Fine-mapping delimited the QTL to a genomic region of 107kb that harbors FT5a We detected 15 DNA polymorphisms between parents with the early-flowering (ef) and late-flowering (lf) alleles in the promoter region, an intron, and the 3' untranslated region of FT5a, although the FT5a coding regions were identical. Transcript abundance of FT5a was higher in near-isogenic lines for ef than in those for lf, suggesting that different transcriptional activities or mRNA stability caused the flowering time difference. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) calling from re-sequencing data for 439 cultivated and wild soybean accessions indicated that ef is a rare haplotype that is distinct from common haplotypes including lf The ef allele at FT5a may play an adaptive role at latitudes where early flowering is desirable.
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8589, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryoma
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Takeshima
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8589, Japan.
authors.forename: Takafumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8589, Japan.
authors.forename: Jianghui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8589, Japan.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Soybean Molecular Design Breeding, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin 150081, China.
authors.forename: Meilan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Hokkaido Research Organization Tokachi Agricultural Experiment Station, Memuro, Hokkaido 082-0081, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Kannondai, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sayama
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Kannondai, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan.
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishimoto
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Soybean Molecular Design Breeding, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin 150081, China.
authors.forename: Lingping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Soybean Molecular Design Breeding, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin 150081, China.
authors.forename: Xinyi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Soybean Molecular Design Breeding, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin 150081, China.
authors.forename: Baohui
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 1001014, China.
authors.forename: Zhixi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8589, Japan.
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Soybean Molecular Design Breeding, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin 150081, China kongfj@iga.ac.cn jabe@res.agr.hokucai.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Fanjiang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8589, Japan kongfj@iga.ac.cn jabe@res.agr.hokucai.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Abe
mesh_terms: D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D017440:Photoperiod; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013025:Glycine max / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins
keywords: FLOWERING LOCUS T; SNP calling; flowering time; near-isogenic line; photoperiod sensitivity; quantitative trait locus; soybean.