Differential gene expression provides leads to environmentally regulated soybean seed protein content

作者：Julia Hooker, Myron L. Smith, Gerardo Zapata, Martin Charette, Doris Luckert, Ramona M. Mohr, Ketema Daba, Thomas D. Warkentin, Mehri HadiNezhad, Brent Barlow, Anfu Hou, François Lefebvre, Ashkan Golshani, Elroy R. Cober, Bahram Samanfar · 发表于：Frontiers in Plant Science · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3389/fpls.2023.1260393 · 被引用次数：12 · 研究领域：Soybean genetics and cultivation、Legume Nitrogen Fixing Symbiosis、Plant nutrient uptake and metabolism

Soybean is an important global source of plant-based protein. A persistent trend has been observed over the past two decades that soybeans grown in western Canada have lower seed protein content than soybeans grown in eastern Canada. In this study, 10 soybean genotypes ranging in average seed protein content were grown in an eastern location (control) and three western locations (experimental) in Canada. Seed protein and oil contents were measured for all lines in each location. RNA-sequencing and differential gene expression analysis were used to identify differentially expressed genes that may account for relatively low protein content in western-grown soybeans. Differentially expressed genes were enriched for ontologies and pathways that included amino acid biosynthesis, circadian rhythm, starch metabolism, and lipid biosynthesis. Gene ontology, pathway mapping, and quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping collectively provide a close inspection of mechanisms influencing nitrogen assimilation and amino acid biosynthesis between soybeans grown in the East and West. It was found that western-grown soybeans had persistent upregulation of asparaginase (an asparagine hydrolase) and persistent downregulation of asparagine synthetase across 30 individual differential expression datasets. This specific difference in asparagine metabolism between growing environments is almost certainly related to the observed differences in seed protein content because of the positive correlation be...