Characterization of dwarf mutants and molecular mapping of a dwarf locus in soybean

Plant height is one of the most important traits in soybean. The semi-dwarf soybean cultivars could improve the ability of lodging resistance to obtain higher yield. To broaden the dwarfism germplasm resources in soybean, 44 dwarf mutants were identified from a gamma rays mutagenized M2 population. Two of these mutants, Gmdwf1 (Glycine max dwarf 1) and Gmdwf2 (Glycine max dwarf 2), were investigated in this study. Genetic analysis showed that both mutants were inherited in a recessive manner and their mutated regions were delimited to a 2.610-Mb region on chromosome 1 by preliminary mapping. Further fine mapping study proved that the two mutants had a common deletion region of 1.552 Mb in the target region, which was located in a novel locus site without being reported previously. The dwarfism of Gmdwf1 could not be rescued by gibberellin (GA) and brassinolide (BR) treatments, which indicated that the biosynthesis of these hormones was not deficient in Gmdwf1.