Open Access

ARTICLE

Drought-Ready Soybean Resilience: Molecular Marker-Based Screening and Selection of Superior Genotypes

Muhammad Imran Khan¹, Fahad Masoud Wattoo¹, Kamran Shehzad Bajwa^2,*, Zahid Akram¹, Sabahat Noor², Zaheer Abbas², Rashid Mehmood Rana¹, Muhammad Tahir Akram³, Shaukat Ali², Rai Muhammad Amir⁴, Ghulam Muhammad Ali⁵

1 Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, 46000, Pakistan
2 National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology (NIGAB), National Agricultural Research Center, PARC, Islamabad, 45500, Pakistan
3 Department of Horticulture, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, 46000, Pakistan
4 Institute of Food and Nutritional Sciences, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, 46000, Pakistan
5 Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), Islamabad, 45500, Pakistan

* Corresponding Author: Kamran Shehzad Bajwa. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advances in Enhancing Grain Yield: From Molecular Mechanisms to Sustainable Agriculture)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2025, 94(4), 1299-1318. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2025.062323

Received 16 December 2024; Accepted 28 March 2025; Issue published 30 April 2025

Abstract

The agricultural sector is notably affected by climate change, especially soybeans, which may face diminished yields because of severe water shortages. The evaluation of germplasm at morphological and molecular levels is an important pre-breeding step for crop improvement. This study employed 10 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers to examine 60 soybean genotypes in the quest for drought-resistant lines during 2022–23. The results of the screening experiment (PEG-6000) revealed that the soybean genotypes SPS13, SPS195, PGRB83, and 39982 exhibited significant correlations in growth parameters. The results of molecular characterization indicated that five out of ten molecular markers, specifically Satt373, Satt454, Satt471, Satt478, and Satt581, exhibited distinct banding patterns along with elevated levels of genetic diversity and heterozygosity. The phylogenetic analysis findings indicated that soybean genotypes were categorized into many clusters, with at least six genotypes located in cluster 5 and the most seventeen genotypes in cluster 7. The results obtained from principal component analysis indicated that PC1 explained up to 44.7% of the variance, while PC2 accounted for 17.3%. The results of the heatmap indicated that PGBR83 exhibited the highest expression in plant height, GP39982 and SPS109 in chlorophyll content, GP39982 in proline accumulation, and SPS2, GP40025, SPS69, and GP40174 in protein content, number of pods per plant, and yield per plant, whereas GP40116 and PGRA83 demonstrated consistently low expression. The results of biochemical analysis indicated that the soybean genotypes SPS13, PGRA83, SPS176, 40158, SPS162, SPS195, SPS175, SPS109, and SPS80 were identified as superior sources of protein and oil content, along with genotypes such as PGRB55, SPS177, 40116, and 40111, which exhibited a significant increase under drought stress conditions. The findings of this research provide complete information derived from molecular approaches on soybean genotypes, which might assist breeders in selecting parental lines to generate drought-tolerant soybean cultivars in the future.

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