Cultivated soybean was domesticated from wild soybean in China over a period of 5,000 years, and then widely spread all over the world. Soybean has been a major, multiuse crop that globally makes up 56% of the oilseed production and more than 25% of the protein used in food and animal feed. With the increase of world population and the change of diet structure, the global demand for soybean is increasing year by year. Thus, breeding soybeans with higher efficiency is urgently needed.
A research team led by Prof. TIAN Zhixi from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), together with their collaborators, has recently developed a 40K GenoBaits genotyping Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) array to assist soybean breeding and genetic study.
The GenoBaits Soy40K was designed based on the 27 soybeans pan-genome, 2,898 accession variation data and 49 function-aware genes, according to the researchers.
This genotyping platform well reflects the genetic structure of soybean and performed well in analysis such as gene/quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping and genome-wide association analysis. The GenoBaits Soy40K array can be used to breed/improve soybean varieties with excellent comprehensive agronomic traits by the molecular design breeding for the above 49 function-aware genes, especially co-regulatory genes.
The GenoBaits Soy40K array is designed with genotyping by target sequencing (GBTS) system, which is more flexible and low-cost in genotyping practice. In addition to the 40K sites array, there are a series of products with 20K, 10K and 5K and foreground sites for different demands.
This research was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Modern Seed Industry Science and Technology Innovation Team of Hebei Province.
Character of GenoBaits Soy40K array and its application scenario. (Image by IGDB)
