A candidate male-fertility female-fertility gene tagged by the soybean endogenous transposon, Tgm9.

In soybean, the W4 gene encoding dihydroflavonol-4-reductase controls anthocyanin pigment biosynthesis in flowers. The mutant allele, w4-m, is characterized by variegated flowers and was evolved from the insertion of an endogenous transposable element, Tgm9, in intron II of the W4 gene. In the w4-m mutant line, reversion of the unstable allele from variegated to normal purple flower in revertants would indicate Tgm9's excision accompanied by its insertion into a second locus. We identified a male-sterile, female-sterile mutant from such germinal revertant bearing purple flowers. The objectives of our investigation were to map the sterility locus, identify candidate genes for the male-fertile, female-fertile phenotype, and then determine if sterility is associated with the insertion of Tgm9 in the sterility locus. We used bulked segregant analysis to map the locus to molecular linkage group J (chromosome 16). Fine mapping enabled us to flank the locus to a 62-kb region that contains only five predicted genes. One of the genes in that region, Glyma16g07850.1, codes for a helicase. A rice homolog of this gene has been shown to control crossing over and fertility phenotype. Thus, Glyma16g07850.1 is most likely the gene regulating the male and female fertility phenotype in soybean. DNA blot analysis of the segregating individuals for Tgm9 showed perfect association between sterility and the presence of the transposon. Most likely, the sterility mutation was caused by the insertion of Tgm9. The transposable element should facilitate identification of the male- and female-fertility gene. Characterization of the fertility gene will provide vital molecular insight on the reproductive biology of soybean and other plants.