Legume Genomics and Genetics 2025, Vol.16, No.1, 11-22 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/lgg 11 Research Report Open Access Genome-Wide Association Mapping of Drought Resistance Traits in Soybean Dandan Huang Hainan Institute of Biotechnology, Haikou, 570206, Hainan, China Corresponding email: dandan.huang@hibio.org Legume Genomics and Genetics, 2025 Vol.16, No.1 doi: 10.5376/lgg.2025.16.0002 Received: 22 Nov., 2024 Accepted: 03 Jan., 2025 Published: 18 Jan., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Huang, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Huang D.D., 2025, Genome-wide association mapping of drought resistance traits in soybean, Legume Genomics and Genetics, 16(1): 11-22 (doi: 10.5376/lgg.2025.16.0002) Abstract Genome wide association studies (GWAS), as a powerful genomic tool, have been widely used to analyze the genetic basis of drought resistance traits in soybean. By mining quantitative trait loci (QTLs) related to drought resistance, they provide important molecular markers for drought resistance breeding. This study introduces the application of GWAS in the research of drought resistance traits in soybeans, with a focus on analyzing the mapping of drought resistance QTLs, the mining of candidate genes, and their application in drought resistance breeding. At the same time, combining GWAS with other molecular breeding techniques such as marker assisted selection (MAS) and genome selection (GS), we have promoted the improvement of drought resistance traits and explored the potential of gene editing technology in enhancing soybean drought resistance. Research has found that GWAS has made significant progress in the study of soybean drought resistance, identifying multiple key QTLs that affect root development, water use efficiency (WUE), and metabolic pathways, and revealing the impact of gene environment interactions on drought resistance traits. Through gene functional analysis, candidate genes for drought resistance and their regulatory networks have been identified, providing a new direction for molecular breeding of drought resistant traits. GWAS has demonstrated strong potential in the study of drought resistant traits in soybeans, not only revealing complex genetic regulatory networks, but also providing valuable molecular tools for drought resistant breeding. In the future, by integrating new technologies such as big data, machine learning, and gene editing, precision breeding of drought resistant traits will be further optimized and promoted, providing more adaptable varieties for global soybean production. Keywords Soybean; Drought resistance; Genome-wide association study (GWAS); Genomic selection; Gene editing 1 Introduction When it comes to soybeans (Glycine max L.), despite its unremarkable appearance, it is a tough player in global agriculture (Suo et al., 2022). Southeast Asia, Africa and the Americas all point to it. After all, the protein and fat content is there (Kim et al., 2023b). However, on the other hand, although soybeans are now an important source of animal feed and human food, the cultivation conditions vary greatly from place to place (Rani et al., 2023). The market demand keeps rising, leaving researchers struggling with how to cultivate high-yield varieties adapted to different environments. To be honest, it's not without reason that this crop has reached its current status. Nowadays, global warming is becoming more and more serious, and the problem of drought is also becoming more and more frequent (Cao et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2023a). When it comes to soybeans, this thing is most afraid of water shortage. Once there is drought, the output drops sharply. (Kim et al., 2023c; Li et al., 2023). In fact, drought resistance is particularly important for soybeans. After all, climate change is so unstable now. However, it is not easy to cultivate drought-resistant varieties. The genetic mechanism behind them must be clarified first (Xiong et al., 2020). Although soybeans can grow normally, they still cannot withstand drought. Therefore, breeding experts are all working hard to study this. Nowadays, those engaged in research on drought resistance of soybeans are all using GWAS (Genome-wide Association Study), and this method is indeed quite effective. Although traditional breeding methods have not been completely phased out, GWAS can directly identify those gene loci (QTLs) and candidate genes related to drought resistance (Kim et al., 2023b; Rani et al., 2023). To put it simply, it is to conduct experiments on different soybean varieties to see which genetic markers are linked to drought resistance performance (Kim et al., 2023c).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ4ODYzNA==