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Abstract:
Soybean is an economically important crop that has rapidly expanded throughout Western Canada and Northern regions. To continue this expansion, understanding the time of flowering and maturity pathway is an important factor for soybean adaptation. So far, eleven maturity loci have been identified for this pathway, however the underlying gene for one third of them remain unknown. The E8 maturity locus was previously identified in our lab on chromosome 4 using classical breeding practices and genome wide SSR marker analysis. A bioinformatics approach utilizing PIPE (Protein-protein Interaction Prediction Engine) along with a plethora of functional genomics resources and prediction tools has short listed this region down to 3 promising candidates; Glyma.04G124600, Glyma.04G140000, and Glyma.04G101500, all involved in light perception. Further analysis of these candidates will reveal the underlying gene for E8 and shed light on the flowering mechanism in the important food crop soybean.