Association Mapping of Flower and Pod Abscission with SSR Markers in Northeast Spring Sowing Soybeans

Flower and pod abscission is a self-adjusting phenomenon in the reproductive stage of soybean,which is one of the most important factors restricting soybean yield.Elite SSR markers associated with the flower and pod abscission rate in the northeast spring sowing soybean,consisting of 104 (in 2011) and 314 (in 2012) accessions were measured at flowering and maturation stage under the same field management in Mudanjiang experimental locations,China.A total of 205 SSR markers distributing on the 20 linkage groups of soybean were utilized to genotype the tested materials.The linkage disequilibrium and the structure of the population were analyzed by TASSEL 2.1 and STRUCTURE 2.3.The association analysis between SSR and flower and pod abscission rate was performed using TASSEL GLM (general linear model) program with the Q value as the covariate,aimed to screen out the loci with significant effects on the flower and pod abscission of northeast spring soybeans.A total of 763 alleles were identified on 205 SSR loci,and each locus had 2-12 alleles.The polymorphism information contents (PICs) of the SSR loci ranged from 0.054~0.771.33 SSR loci were found to be significantly associated with flower and pod abscission rate on the 205 SSR markers.The results showed that,both in 2011 and 2012,four SSR loci associated with the phenotype of flower and pod abscission rate were detected,and they were mapped on the Satt534(B2),Satt452(E),Satt244(J),Satt478(O).The results of this study are meaningful for the marker assisted selection breeding of northeast spring sowing soybean varieties with low flower and pod abscission rate quality.