Learning from past: Implication of neutral variability changes during soybean breeding on further breeding process

Abstract

Historically, soybean breeding began with a small number of genotypes and can be seen as a recurrent selection for yield. Analyzing allele frequencies in ancestral and elite population for particular region, it is possible to find neutral alleles with significant different frequencies between two populations. Each allele, which has a different frequency in the elite and ancestral population, indicates selection effects in the vicinity of a given locus. Exploring neutral variability in ancestral and elite population, it is possible to find soybean genomic locations which are under selection, actually affecting the yield increase. These parts of the genome are associated with agronomical important genes and can be used in marker assisted selection. Ancestral population was established based on pedigree analysis, which includes last available ancestor. Elite population consist of high yielding varieties that are grown in Central and Eastern Europe, breed at Institute of field and vegetable crops, Novi Sad. Analysis of variability in ancestral and elite soybean population with 50 microsatellite markers, indicate several genomic regions which are under selection. Deviation in allele frequencies from expecting values calculated by pedigree, indicate significant decreases, increases and fixation of alleles frequencies on several SSR loci.