Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) is one of the most important oil and protein crops. Ever-increasing soybean consumption necessitates the improvement of varieties for more efficient production. However, both correlations among different traits and genetic interactions among genes that affect a single trait pose a challenge to soybean breeding.
To understand the genetic networks underlying phenotypic correlations, we collected 809 soybean accessions worldwide and phenotyped them for two years at three locations for 84 agronomic traits. Genome-wide association studies identified 245 significant genetic loci, among which 95 genetically interacted with other loci. We determined that 14 oil synthesis-related genes are responsible for fatty acid accumulation in soybean and function in line with an additive model. Network analyses demonstrated that 51 traits could be linked through the linkage disequilibrium of 115 associated loci and these links reflect phenotypic correlations. We revealed that 23 loci, including the known Dt1, E2, E1, Ln, Dt2, Fan, and Fap loci, as well as 16 undefined associated loci, have pleiotropic effects on different traits.
This study provides insights into the genetic correlation among complex traits and will facilitate future soybean functional studies and breeding through molecular design.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 32. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 March 2026.
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#1,491,478
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#22,879
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Outputs of similar age from Genome Biology
#17
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Altmetric has tracked 32,542,958 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,411 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 24.1. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 55 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its contemporaries.
