Genetic and Linkage Analysis of Cleistogamy in Soybean

• Published in: Journal of Heredity
• Main Authors: Takahashi, R., Kurosaki, H., Yumoto, S., Han, O. K., Abe, J.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2001
• Subjects: Brief Communications; Okhotsk; Sakhalin
• Online Access: http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/92/1/89; https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/92.1.89

Early maturing cultivars of soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] native to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk (Sakhalin and Kuril Islands) and eastern Hokkaido (northern Japan) have been used in breeding for chilling tolerance. These cultivars have a strong tendency to produce cleistogamous flowers throughout their blooming period. This study was conducted to determine the genetic basis of cleistogamy in an early maturing cultivar, Karafuto-1, introduced from Sakhalin. Genetic analysis was performed using F 1 plants, the F 2 population, and 50 F 3 families produced by crossing between Karafuto-1 and a chasmogamous cultivar, Toyosuzu. F 1 plants had chasmogamous flowers, indicating that chasmogamy was dominant to cleistogamy. Analysis of F 2 populations and F 3 families generated segregation data that was close to a two-gene model with epistatic interactions, although a portion of the pooled F 3 data on the frequency of chasmogamous segregants from cleistogamous families significantly deviated from the model. The results suggested that a minimum of two genes with epistatic effects were involved in the genetic control of cleistogamy. Furthermore, cleistogamy was associated with early flowering in the F 2 and F 3 populations. A gene for cleistogamy was linked to one of the recessive genes responsible for insensitivity to incandescent long daylength.