Research Article

Genetic divergence in a soybean (Glycine max) diversity panel based on agro-morphological traits

Published: November 21, 2016
Genet. Mol. Res. 15(4): gmr15048980 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4238/gmr15048980
Cite this Article:
M.B. Marconato, E.M. Pereira, F.M. Silva, E.H. Bizari, J.B. Pinheiro, A.O. Mauro, S.H. Unêda-Trevisoli, M.B. Marconato, E.M. Pereira, F.M. Silva, E.H. Bizari, J.B. Pinheiro, A.O. Mauro, S.H. Unêda-Trevisoli (2016). Genetic divergence in a soybean (Glycine max) diversity panel based on agro-morphological traits. Genet. Mol. Res. 15(4): gmr15048980. https://doi.org/10.4238/gmr15048980
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Abstract

Owing to the narrow genetic basis of soybean (Glycine max), the incorporation of new sources of germplasm is indispensable when searching for alleles that contribute to a greater diversity of varieties. The alternative is plant introduction, which may increase genetic variability within breeding programs. Multivariate techniques are important tools to study genetic diversity and allow the precise elucidation of variability in a set of genotypes of interest. The agro-morphological traits of 93 soybean accessions from various continents were analyzed in order to assess the genetic diversity present, and to highlight important traits. The experimental design was incomplete blocks (Alpha lattice, 8 x 12) with three replicates. Nine agro-morphological traits were analyzed, and principal component analysis and cluster analysis were performed, the latter by Ward’s method. The dendrogram obtained contained eight subgroups, confirming the genetic diversity among the accessions and revealing similarities between 11 national genotypes. The geographical origin of the accessions was not always related to the clusters. The traits evaluated, and the methods used, facilitated the distinction and characterization of genotypes between and within groups, and could be used in Brazilian soybean breeding programs.

INTRODUCTION

A major goal of plant breeding is the introduction of superior cultivars through the study and manipulation of germplasm (Bueno et al., 2006). There is a narrow genetic basis of soybean (Glycine max) cultivars in Brazil, because of the poor insertion of ancestral lineages and the existing relatedness between them (Wysmierski and Vello, 2013). Such narrowing causes less variability, lower levels of productivity, and cultivars that are less resistant to diseases and pests (Kisha and Diers, 1997; Manjarrez-Sandoval et al., 1997). To increase the genetic variability of cultures within breeding programs, a viable alternative is the incorporation of new sources of germplasm, such as genotypes known as plant introductions (PIs). The use of exotic germplasm is an important alternative in the process, and can contribute to the introduction of specific alleles of interest (Sneller et al., 1997).

The study of genetic diversity is of fundamental importance in understanding the genetic variability of populations and germplasm banks. Various multivariate analysis techniques may be used for this, such as principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (Cruz and Carneiro, 2003), which optimize genotype evaluation. Cluster analysis is the allocation of individuals or objects to groups, such that those that are in the same group are more similar to each other than those that are in other groups. The goal of this analysis is to maximize the homogeneity within groups while maximizing the heterogeneity between groups (Hair et al., 2005). PCA aims to simplify the description of a set of interrelated variables, and reduce the space of variables forming orthogonal axes that are linear combinations of the original variables, which are called principal components. This method transforms the original variables into new, uncorrelated variables. The principal component is a linear combination of the original variables, and the variance of each component is the amount of information explained by each one (Ferraudo, 2012).

The aims of this study were to evaluate a set of soybean accessions from various regions of the world based on agro-morphological traits of importance, study their genetic diversity using multivariate methods, and highlight traits of importance.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The experiment was conducted at an experimental station located at Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias of Universidade Estadual de São Paulo, Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil, at 21°15'22'' S and 48°18'58'' W and an average of 595 m above mean sea level in altitude. The climate, according to the Köppen (1948) classification, is Aw and humid tropical, with a rainy season in the summer and dry season in the winter. The predominant soil type is Red Eutrophic Latossoil.

Sowing was conducted manually, after the planting area had been harrowed twice and ploughed deeply. The culture and management practices were conducted according to the technical guidelines for soybean provided by EMBRAPA (2012).

A total of 93 soybean genotypes (Table 1) were evaluated, which were provided by the EMBRAPA germplasm bank. The experimental design was incomplete blocks (Alpha lattice 8 x 12), totaling 93 treatments with three replicates. The genotypes were sown in November 2012 for cultivation in the agricultural year 2012/2013. Each plot consisted of four 5-m rows that were spaced 0.5 m apart, with a total area of 4 m2.

Characteristics of the accessions used in the study.

FN PI Origin FN PI Origin
1 36906 Manchuria (China) 49 341254 Sudan
2 79861 China 50 341264 Liberia
3 84910 North Korea 51 360851 Japan
4 90251 South Korea 52 377573 China
5 133226 Indonesia 53 381660 Uganda
6 145079 Zimbabwe 54 381680 Uganda
7 148259 Indonesia 56 407744 China
8 148260 South Africa 57 407764 China
9 153681 El Salvador 58 416828 Japan
10 159097 South Africa 59 417563 Vietnam
11 159927 Peru 60 417581 EUA
12 164885 Guatemala 61 417582 EUA
13 165524 India 62 427276 China
14 166141 Nepal 63 438301 North Korea
15 170889 South Korea 64 90577 China
16 171437 China 65 159922 Peru
17 172902 Turkey 66 209839 Nepal
18 189402 Guatemala 67 222546 Argentina
19 200832 Burma Myanmar 68 240665 Philippines
20 203400 Brazil 69 281898 Malaysia
21 203404 Brazil 70 281911 Philippines
22 204333 Suriname 71 284816 Malaysia
23 204340 Suriname 72 306712 Tanzania
24 205384 Pakistan 74 281907 Malaysia
25 205912 Thailand 75 IAC 100 Brazil
26 210178 Taiwan 76 Paranagoiania Brazil
27 210352 Mozambique 77 A7002 Brazil
29 215692 Israel 78 CD 215 Brazil
30 222397 Pakistan 79 Conquista Brazil (TMG)
31 222550 Argentina 80 Pintado Brazil (TMG)
32 229358 Japan 81 Sambaíba Brazil (EMBRAPA)
33 239237 Thailand 82 Dowling EUA
34 253664 China 83 Shira Nuhi (200526) Japan
35 259540 Nigeria 84 Kinoshita (200487) Japan
36 265491 Peru 85 Orba (471904) Indonesia
37 265497 Colombia 86 Bignam EUA
38 274454-A Japan 87 227687 Japan
39 274454-B Japan 88 171451 Japan
40 274507 China 89 VMáx Brazil
41 283327 Taiwan 90 Potência Brazil
42 285095 Venezuela 91 Sandra 1 Brazil
43 297550 Russia 92 Sandra 2 Brazil
44 306702 Tanzania 93 LQ 1050 Brazil
45 315701 EUA 94 LQ 1505 Brazil
46 322695 Angola 95 LQ 1421 Brazil
47 331793 Vietnam 96 LQ 1413 Brazil
48 331795 Vietnam

FN, field number; PI, plant introduction.

Evaluations of agro-morphological traits, which required plant manipulation, were conducted on a sample of six plants from each plot at the R7 state of maturity (Fehr and Caviness, 1977). The remainder of the plants was manually harvested. To characterize the genotypes, nine agronomically important traits were considered. Grain yield (GY) was obtained after harvest. The corrected total weight was obtained based on 13% moisture and converted to kilograms per hectare (kg/ha). The number of pods (NP) and number of branches (NB) were obtained by counting the pods and branches, respectively, on each plant evaluated. The weight of 100 seeds (WHS), given in grams, was evaluated by weighing 100 seeds harvested from each plot. The oil content (OC) was analyzed using a near-infrared spectrometer (Model Tango Bruker, Bruker Optics Inc., Billerica, MA, USA), and the results were expressed as a percentage that was obtained from the average of three readings. The number of days to maturity (NDM) was calculated from the day of emergence to the day when at least 50% of the plants exhibited 95% maturation of the pods. The grain-filling period (GFP) was calculated as the number of days between the R5 and R7 stages, according to the Fehr and Caviness (1977) scale. Plant height at maturity (PHM) was the distance (cm) between the neck of the plant and the insertion point at the last productive pod. The height of insertion of the first pod (HIP) was the distance (cm) between the neck of the plant and the insertion of the first pod.

To estimate genetic divergence among the 93 accessions, we conducted multivariate analysis. Two exploratory approaches were used, PCA and cluster analysis by Ward’s method, which depends on the existence of a dependency structure in the original set of variables. The data were standardized, so that all of the variables had zero mean and unit variances. The statistical software used was Statistica version 10 (www.statsoft.com).

The goal of PCA is to evaluate the importance of each variable in relation to the total available variation among genotypes. Using this method, it is possible to exclude less important traits in the group studied (Cruz and Carneiro, 2003), and simultaneously determine which traits are the most important. After calculating the means for each replicate, the data obtained were processed by PCA with the covariance matrix giving eigenvalues that generated eigenvectors, which are linear combinations of the original variables. Only eigenvalues greater than one were considered, because these are components with a significant amount of information from the original variables (Kaiser, 1958).

Subsequently, the centroids of the genotypes, which were specific to each quadrant, were calculated based on the results of the PCA. With the data obtained, a two-dimensional graphic of the groups was produced, which displays the standardized values of the averages of the original variables. The similarity between genotypes was measured by the Mahalanobis distance (Mahalanobis, 1936), and connections between groups were obtained by Ward’s method, whereby the distance between two groups is defined as the sum of squares of the two groups obtained from all of the variables. At each stage of the clustering procedure, the internal sum of squares is minimized on all partitions that are obtained by combining two earlier-stage groups (Ferraudo, 2012).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The dendrogram produced by the Ward method shows two groups separated by the maximum distance. At a shorter distance (60), eight subgroups were identified (Figure 1). The first subgroup had 11 genotypes (87, 58, 7, 70, 49, 23, 13, 31, 12, 18, and 35); 18% were African, 36% were Hispanic, and 45% were Asian (18% East Asian, 18% Southeast Asian, and 9% Southern Asian).

Dendrogram derived from a hierarchical cluster analysis using the Mahalanobis generalized distance and Ward’s method for connecting groups based on agro-morphological traits. Eight subgroups (indicated with dashed lines) are below the solid red line.

The second group was composed of nine genotypes (66, 80, 21, 25, 40, 65, 38, 26, and 71); 33% were Latino and 66% were Asian (33% East Asian, 22% Southeast Asian, and 11% Southern Asian). The third group consisted entirely of Brazilian genotypes (96, 94, 95, 76, 75, 91, 89, 77, 79, 92, and 78). The fourth group contained nine genotypes (39, 68, 32, 88, 67, 33, 74, 29, and 36); 22% were Latino and 77% were Asian (33% East Asian, 33% Southeast Asian, and 11% West Asian). The fifth group was composed of 22 genotypes (64, 48, 46, 2, 82, 81, 93, 90, 41, 69, 54, 8, 27, 15, 60, 51, 47, 22, 85, 52, 59, and 50); 26% were African, 44% were Asian (22% East Asian and 22% Southeast Asian), and 30% were American (18% Brazilian). The sixth group had only four genotypes (34, 17, 43, and 63), all of which were Asian; 50% were East Asian, 25% were West Asian, and 25% were Northern Eurasian. The seventh group contained 16 genotypes; 25% were African, 25% were American, and 50% were Asian (37.5% East Asian, and the remainder equally from Southeast and Southern Asia). The final group consisted of 11 genotypes (45, 30, 16, 9, 24, 37, 19, 10, 61, 4, and 3); 36% were from the USA, 9% were African, and 54% were Asian (27% East Asian, 18% Southern Asian, and 9% Southeast Asian).

Overall, there was a moderate association between the genotypes and their geographical distributions. Perry and McIntosh (1991) reported an association between New World accessions, including Brazilian PIs, and Chinese accessions, with striking morphological similarities between the two groups. This association could be seen between groups 2, 5, 6, and 8. Griffin and Palmer (1995) stated that the long history of soybean domestication and trade in Asia has contributed to the spread of its alleles across regions, thereby reducing the influence of geography on patterns of variation among Asian soybean accessions. Similarly, Brown-Guedira et al. (2000) did not detect any geographical variation in a genetic diversity study using random amplification of polymorphic DNA and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, conducted with a group of 105 genotypes that consisted of American ancestors and PIs.

Five of the eight subgroups had Chinese accessions. This was expected, because China is where the soybean originated, and similar results were obtained in a study that included 79 soybean accessions using genomic (SSR) and functional (expressed sequence tag-SSR) microsatellite markers (Mulato et al., 2010). Indeed, 73 of the 79 genotypes were also used in the present study.

Although the sample size was not very large, we did find some associations or groupings based on the traits evaluated. Li and Nelson (2001) reported that the number of accessions of each region was not representative of the diversity found in each country, and the data allowed the identification of genetic patterns. Another method of identifying genotypes individually is molecular characterization (Oliveira et al., 2010).

In the PCA, the first three components accounted for 71.07% of the total variance. According to Kaiser (1958), only eigenvalues greater than 1.0 should be considered, but those with values above 0.6 in each major component were considered relevant. The first principal component (PC1) accounted for 38.28% of the total variance explained by PHM, NB, OC, NDM, WHS, and NP. The second principal component (PC2) accounted for 20.30% of the total variance explained by GFP and GY, and the third principal component (PC3) accounted for 12.50% of the total variance explained by HIP. However, PC3 did not discriminate between genotypes, which supports the results obtained by Muniz et al. (2002), who reported no significant phenotypic correlation between GY and HIP. Alcantara Neto et al. (2011) investigated correlations between PHM, HIP, NP, and WHS and GY, and found that HIP did not have a cause-and-effect relationship with the other variables, and, therefore, did not directly affect productivity.

Considering the first two principal components, PC1 (38.28%) and PC2 (20.30%), the data were analyzed on a two-dimensional plane, in which the accessions were broken down by quadrants (Figure 2). As can be seen in Figure 2, the genotypes 87, 58, 23, 13, 29, 26, 71, 33, 67, 74, 7, 31, 12, 36, 38, 70, 35, 18, and 66 are highlighted in relation to the variables NB and NP, whose vectors are contained in the first quadrant. The genotypes 51, 46, 50, 88, 60, 56, 34, 43, 17, and 63 are in the second quadrant despite diverging from the others, and had no outstanding variable that grouped them. The third quadrant was characterized by the variables OC and WHS, and contained the genotypes 89, 78, 82, 24, 9, 62, 19, 37, 6, and 3. The fourth quadrant contained the genotypes 25, 49, 40, 80, 77, 91, 92, and 79 with respect to PHM, NDM, GY, and GFP.

Principal component analysis of 93 soybean accessions for agro-morphological traits. The first quadrant shows accessions highlighted in red, the second in blue, the third in purple, and the fourth in green.

Groups were formed based on the genotypes being broken down into each quadrant of Figure 2. The means of the genotypes, and of the groups formed in the quadrants, are shown in Table 2, and the group centroid profiles for each variable are shown in Figure 3.

Means of agro-morphological traits and four genotype groups that were broken down by principal component analysis.

Group 1 GY NDM GFP PHM HIP NB NP OC WHS
18 Guatemala 2004 139 45 151 13 6 51 17 10
35 Nigeria 2885 139 45 128 10 6 72 15 9
70 Philippines 3039 135 41 118 15 6 120 17 10
38 Japan 2997 136 42 116 10 7 169 16 11
36 Peru 1792 139 40 124 19 6 102 15 9
74 Malaysia 1098 137 37 134 27 6 55 15 9
7 Indonesia 1846 134 43 129 16 7 94 15 8
31 Argentina 1801 137 43 129 16 7 94 15 9
12 Guatemala 1700 140 45 159 10 7 109 14 9
33 Thailand 1188 138 38 128 20 6 71 16 9
67 Argentina 1468 138 39 97 19 7 98 17 9
23 Suriname 1955 133 37 133 17 6 78 15 9
58 Japan 2310 132 36 161 7 6 84 15 10
87 Japan 1334 126 34 184 10 4 73 16 8
13 India 1518 138 38 151 12 6 74 14 8
29 Israel 1599 135 35 137 18 6 133 15 10
26 Taiwan 1912 135 37 144 11 7 147 16 8
71 Malaysia 1397 137 37 122 12 7 180 15 10
66 Nepal 1757 139 42 113 15 9 187 14 8
Average 1874 136 40 136 14 6 106 15 9
Group 2
51 Japan 2844 119 36 58 10 4 59 22 20
46 Angola 1747 114 37 78 14 3 51 22 15
50 Liberia 1751 120 31 85 13 3 34 21 17
88 Japan 750 134 39 33 5 1 36 19 12
60 USA 2414 112 35 61 9 2 50 21 19
56 China 460 112 37 38 5 3 43 20 23
34 China 1958 101 26 62 10 2 27 18 13
43 Russia 1378 100 25 46 4 3 81 21 19
17 Turkey 2420 88 13 35 12 3 47 19 22
63 North Korea 1100 97 22 45 5 3 100 19 17
Average 1682 110 30 54 9 2 53 20 18
Group 3
3 North Korea 1732 119 44 69 12 2 71 22 18
6 Zimbabwe 2193 122 43 60 10 3 82 20 27
9 El Salvador 1445 128 51 71 12 2 44 21 20
19 Burma Myanmar 1865 123 48 57 8 3 57 23 19
37 Colombia 2001 127 50 39 5 4 50 20 19
62 China 1605 123 48 70 17 2 28 19 23
24 Pakistan 1012 134 57 46 7 2 30 22 20
82 USA 3435 138 51 54 6 3 69 23 17
78 Brazil 4260 130 49 80 16 2 43 22 16
89 Brazil 3515 138 51 95 15 2 67 22 18
Average 2307 128 49 64 11 3 54 21 20
Group 4
79 Brazil 4178 138 48 106 22 3 57 20 18
91 Brazil 3592 140 53 133 20 3 89 21 16
92 Brazil 4092 139 52 113 26 3 64 22 15
77 Brazil 3983 142 52 133 19 5 89 19 17
80 Brazil 4190 137 49 107 17 7 109 21 18
40 China 2333 141 51 123 10 4 168 19 11
49 Sudan 3822 138 45 123 12 6 140 16 9
25 Thailand 2586 139 47 99 12 8 143 18 10
Average 3597 140 50 117 17 5 106 19 14

GY = grain yield (kg/ha); NDM = number of days to maturity; GFP = grain-filling period (days); PHM = plant height at maturity (cm); HIP = height of insertion of the first pod (cm); NB = number of branches; NP = number of pods; OC = oil content (%); WHS = weight of 100 seeds (g).

Centroid profiles of each group (G) broken down by principal component analysis for agro-morphological traits in 93 soybean genotypes. GY = grain yield; NDM = number of days to maturity; GFP = grain-filling period; PHM = plant height at maturity; HIP = height of insertion of the first pod; NB = number of branches; NP = number of pods; OC = oil content; WHS = weight of 100 seeds.

Group 1 (Table 2 and Figure 3) had the second-highest value for NDM (136), indicating that plants of this group have a late cycle. This group also had above-average values for the related traits PHM (136 cm) and HIP (14 cm). However, the GFP (40 days) was below average. This short GFP was associated with the lowest WHS among all of the groups (9 g), which negatively affected the grain yield (1874 kg/ha), even though NB and NP were above the average (6 and 105, respectively). The OC was the lowest among all of the groups, with 15%.

Most of the variables in Group 2 (Table 2 and Figure 3) were below average, with the exception of OC (20%) and WHS (18 g). Despite having the second-largest WHS, the GY was the lowest among all of the groups, with an average of 1682 kg/ha. The accessions in this group were the earliest, with an average NDM of 110 days. In general, the plants were shorter (PHM = 54 cm), which is commonly observed in early plants, in addition to having few pods (NP = 53). The specific genotypes that formed Group 2 were not characterized by any outstanding variable.

Group 3 (Table 2 and Figure 3) had a mean NDM value of 128 days, and 50 days were used for grain filling, which is why the grains were bigger, which, in turn, contributed to the higher WHS (20 g). The NB and NP values were below average (3 and 54, respectively), and negatively influenced the GY (2307 kg/ha), which was below average (Table 2). PHM had a relatively low value (64 cm), and the OC was 20%.

Group 4 (Table 2 and Figure 3) had above-average values for all of the variables, except WHS. These were the latest accessions, with a NDM of 140 days and a long GFP (50 days). The plants were tall (PHM = 117 cm) and had a high HIP (17 cm), which contributed to the low NP value (106). They were the most productive accessions, with an average of 3597 kg/ha; this was expected, because five of the eight genotypes in this group were Brazilian.

Rigon et al. (2012) found a positive, linear relationship between WHS and GY, indicating that indirect selection for this characteristic can increase productivity. Among the genotypes broken down by PCA, the highest values for WHS were obtained in Groups 2 and 3, the GY values of which were below average. Group 1 had the highest value for GY and a below-average WHS value. These results suggest that other characteristics affect GY. Indeed, Alcantara Neto et al. (2011) found that NP affects productivity; in the present study, the NP values in Groups 2 and 3 were low, which may have contributed to the inconsistency between WHS and GY. In contrast, the opposite was observed in Group 1, which had the highest NP and GY values, demonstrating the close relationship that exists between NP and GY.

According to Muniz et al. (2002), there is a strong correlation between productivity and PHM, indicating that tall plants are more productive. Selection for NP can increase the GY. A congruent result was seen in Group 4, which had above-average values for these variables. The converse was the case for Groups 2 and 3, which had negative standardized values for these variables. However, Group 1 had positive standardized values for PHM and NP and negative standardized values for GY. The low productivity of this group can be explained by the WHS, which was below average; seed size can influence the final GY (Pádua et al., 2010). Silva et al. (2016) reported a negative phenotypic correlation between GY and OC, i.e., high productivity was associated with low OC. The opposite was observed in Groups 2 and 3, which had below-average GY values and above-average OC values.

CONCLUSIONS

Our analyses revealed the presence of several groups, indicating genetic variability in the soybean accessions studied. However, the geographical origins of the accessions were not always related to the groups in which they were in. The multivariate analyses characterized the genotypes between and within groups, which can be used in Brazilian soybean breeding programs. GY was high in a group that contained five Brazilian genotypes and three PIs (China, Sudan, and Thailand), indicating that these genotypes should be studied further.