Whole-genome duplication events (polyploidy events) and gene loss events have played important roles in the evolution of legumes. Here we show that the vast majority of Hsf gene duplications resulted from whole genome duplication events rather than tandem duplication, and significant differences in gene retention exist between species. By searching for intraspecies gene colinearity (microsynten...

The relationship between climatic factors and crop yields for maize and soybeans in 3 major producing countries (the United States, Brazil, and China) was analyzed statistically. Temporal changes in the climate−yield relationship were considered, and the temporal and spatial variations were evaluated. County-level data from 1980 to 2006 were collected for each country and allocated to 1.125° × ...

Improving water use efficiency (WUE) may prove a useful way to adapt crop species to drought. Since the recognition of the importance of mesophyll conductance to CO₂ movement from inside stomatal pores to the sites of photosynthetic carboxylation, there has been interest in how much intraspecific variation in mesophyll conductance (gm) exists, and how such variation may impact leaf WUE within C...

Leaf movement in Biloxi soybean has been investigated in some detail by Bunning (1) and Holdsworth (2). The results and the interpretations presented by these investigators differ with regard to the nature of the leaf movement response. Bunning considers the leaf movement to be a circadian manifestation of the physiological clock, while Holdsworth considers it to be essentially a photonastic re...

Since the domestication of soybean (Glycine max) about 4,500 years ago, thousands of local cultivars have been developed around the world. In Japan, black soybeans grown in the mountainous region of central Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures, called the Tamba region, are well known for large seeds and palatability. The yields of black soybean in the Tamba region of Kyoto have decreased during the past...

Photoperiodic control of flowering time is believed to affect latitudinal distribution of plants. The blue light receptor CRY2 regulates photoperiodic flowering in the experimental model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. However, it is unclear whether genetic variations affecting cryptochrome activity or expression is broadly associated with latitudinal distribution of plants. We report here an inves...