| Summary: | The fibrillin (<i>FBN</i>) gene family is widely distributed in all photosynthetic organisms. Members of this gene family are involved in plant growth and development and their response to various biotic and abiotic stress factors. In this study, 16 members of <i>FBN</i> were identified in <i>Glycine max</i> and characterized by using different bioinformatics tools. Phylogenetic analysis classified <i>FBN</i> genes into seven groups. The presence of stress-related <i>cis</i>-elements in the upstream region of <i>GmFBN</i> highlighted their role in tolerance against abiotic stresses. To further decipher the function, physiochemical properties, conserved motifs, chromosomal localization, subcellular localization, and <i>cis</i>-acting regulatory elements were also analyzed. Gene expression analysis based on FPKM values revealed that <i>GmFBNs</i> greatly enhanced soybean drought tolerance and controlled the expression of several genes involved in drought response, except for <i>GmFBN-4</i>, <i>GmFBN-5</i>, <i>GmFBN-6</i>, <i>GmFBN-7</i> and <i>GmFBN-9</i>. For high throughput genotyping, an SNP-based CAPS marker was also developed for the <i>GmFBN-15</i> gene. The CAPS marker differentiated soybean genotypes based on the presence of either the <i>GmFBN-15-G</i> or <i>GmFBN-15-A</i> alleles in the CDS region. Association analysis showed that <i>G. max</i> accessions containing the <i>GmFBN-15-A</i> allele at the respective locus showed higher thousand seed weight compared to accessions containing the <i>GmFBN-15-G</i> allele. This research has provided the basic information to further decipher the function of <i>FBN</i> in soybean.
|
|---|