Molecular atlas of soybean flowers identifies candidate abscission and reproductive pathways associated with flower abortion
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Plant and Soil Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX USA
- 2Institute of Genomics and Abiotic Stress Tolerance, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX USA
- 3Department of Genetic Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu India
- 4National Institute of Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, India
Abstract
Background: Soybean exhibits great variance of flower abortion, with 20–80% of flowers aborting before pod set, posing a major constraint to yield improvement. Although physiological factors contributing to flower drop are well recognized, the underlying genetic and molecular mechanisms governing abscission and floral retention remain poorly understood. To elucidate the molecular determinants of flower abortion, we performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis of high and low abortion soybean genotypes across four reproductive stages—bud, closed flower, open flower, dry flower, and the leaf as vegetative tissue for reference.
Results: Differential expression and functional enrichment analyses revealed distinct transcriptional landscapes between high and low abortion plants, particularly in genes associated with hormonal signaling, abscission regulation, cell wall remodelling, and reproductive failure. The high abortion plants showed an elevated expression of ethylene responsive and abscission-associated genes, including Inflorescence Deficient in Abscission (IDA), Inflorescence Deficient in Abscission-Like (IDL), Homeobox Protein Knotted-1-Like 6 (KNAT6) and Arabidopsis thaliana Homeobox Gene 1 (ATH1/BEL-1), along with increased activity of pectin-degrading proteins. In contrast, low abortion plants exhibited upregulation of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Phosphatase 1 (MKP1) and KNAT1, consistent with repression of MAPK activity and maintenance of boundary integrity.
Conclusion: Our findings identify distinct transcriptional programs associated with contrasting flower abortion phenotype and highlight coordinated changes in hormone signaling, cell wall remodeling, and boundary specification pathways.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-026-13230-8.
Related
- Comparative chloroplast genomics of Ajania sericea and sympatric Asteraceae species identifies shared candidate molecular features associated with alpine adaptation.
- Spatial transcriptomic analysis identifies tnni2a.3 as a candidate associated with intermuscular bone formation in zebrafish
- Integrated Ovarian circRNA, miRNA and mRNA Profiling Identifies Candidate ceRNA Relationships Associated with Late-Laying and Nesting Stages in Wanxi White Geese
- Integrated transcriptomic analysis identifies Paternally Expressed Gene 10 as a novel candidate biomarker associated with aggressive features in liposarcoma
- Genome-wide association study identifies candidate genes associated with leaf morphological traits in grape (Vitis vinifera L.)
BibTeX
@article{kumari2026molecular,
title = {{Molecular atlas of soybean flowers identifies candidate abscission and reproductive pathways associated with flower abortion}},
author = {Anita Kumari and Leonidas D’Agostino and Senthilkumar Palanisamy and Juliana M. Espíndola Lima and Kuldeep Kumar and Impa Somayanda and Gunvant B. Patil and S. V. Krishna Jagadish},
journal = {BMC Genomics},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1186/s12864-026-13230-8},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-026-13230-8},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Molecular atlas of soybean flowers identifies candidate abscission and reproductive pathways associated with flower abortion
AU - Anita Kumari
AU - Leonidas D’Agostino
AU - Senthilkumar Palanisamy
AU - Juliana M. Espíndola Lima
AU - Kuldeep Kumar
AU - Impa Somayanda
AU - Gunvant B. Patil
AU - S. V. Krishna Jagadish
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/01
JO - BMC Genomics
DO - 10.1186/s12864-026-13230-8
UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-026-13230-8
AB - Background: Soybean exhibits great variance of flower abortion, with 20–80% of flowers aborting before pod set, posing a major constraint to yield improvement. Although physiological factors contributing to flower drop are well recognized, the underlying genetic and molecular mechanisms governing abscission and floral retention remain poorly understood. To elucidate the molecular determinants of flower abortion, we performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis of high and low abortion soybean genotypes across four reproductive stages—bud, closed flower, open flower, dry flower, and the leaf as vegetative tissue for reference. Results: Differential expression and functional enrichment analyses revealed distinct transcriptional landscapes between high and low abortion plants, particularly in genes associated with hormonal signaling, abscission regulation, cell wall remodelling, and reproductive failure. The high abortion plants showed an elevated expression of ethylene responsive and abscission-associated genes, including Inflorescence Deficient in Abscission (IDA), Inflorescence Deficient in Abscission-Like (IDL), Homeobox Protein Knotted-1-Like 6 (KNAT6) and Arabidopsis thaliana Homeobox Gene 1 (ATH1/BEL-1), along with increased activity of pectin-degrading proteins. In contrast, low abortion plants exhibited upregulation of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Phosphatase 1 (MKP1) and KNAT1, consistent with repression of MAPK activity and maintenance of boundary integrity. Conclusion: Our findings identify distinct transcriptional programs associated with contrasting flower abortion phenotype and highlight coordinated changes in hormone signaling, cell wall remodeling, and boundary specification pathways. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-026-13230-8.
SN - 1471-2164
ER -