Although four maturity genes,
E1 to
E4, in soybean have been successfully cloned, their functional mechanisms and the regulatory network of photoperiodic flowering remain to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated how the diurnal expression pattern of the
E1 gene is related to photoperiodic length; and to what extent allelic variation in the B3-like domain of the
E1 gene is associated with flowering time phenotype. The bimodal expression of the
E1 gene peaked first at around 2 hours after dawn in long-day condition. The basal expression level of
E1 was enhanced by the long light phase, and decreased by duration of dark. We identified a 5bp (3 SNP and 2-bp deletion) mutation, referred to an
e1-b3a, which occurs in the middle of B3 domain of the
E1 gene in the early flowering cultivar Yanhuang 3. Subcellular localization analysis showed that the putative truncated e1-b3a protein was predominately distributed in nuclei, indicating the distribution pattern of e1-b3a was similar to that of E1, but not to that of e1-as. Furthermore, genetic analysis demonstrated allelic variations at the
E1 locus significantly underlay flowering time in three F
2 populations. Taken together, we can conclude the legume specific
E1 gene confers some special features in photoperiodic control of flowering in soybean. Further characterization of the
E1 gene will extend our understanding of the soybean flowering pathway in soybean.
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