Impact of Allelic Variation in Maturity Genes E1 – E4 on Soybean Adaptation to Central and West Siberian Regions of Russia

Four maturity genes, namely, E1 , E2 , E3 and E4 , have been found to play major roles in controlling the flowering and maturity time of soybean. Which genotypes of E1 – E4 genes provide effective adaptation to the varied conditions of Russia are unknown. To clarify this issue, we have studied the allele variation in soybean E1 – E4 genes in terms of both flowering and maturity time under the natural day-length conditions of Central Russia and Western Siberia in a collection of 176 soybean accessions, including 142 Russian and 34 foreign accessions. As a result, a high frequency of previously determined E1 – E4 alleles has been identified. The field experiment showed that genotypes with all recessive alleles from e1-nl/e2/e3/e4 and e1-as/e2/e3/e4 provide the effective adaptation of soybean to the mentioned conditions. Cultivars with these genotypes are considered to be most suitable for cultivation in Central Russia and Western Siberia.