Fig. 7: GmLDL2 contributes the latitudinal adaptation of soybean.

a The nucleotide variation indicated by Fst in wild soybeans, landraces, and improved cultivars across the 2 Mb genomic regions surrounding GmLDL2. b Proportions of GmLDL2 haplotypes within each of the three germplasm groups. c The geographical distributions of cultivar accessions harboring GmLDL2^H1 and GmLDL2^H2 across China. NE, Northeastern region of China; NR, Northern region of China; HR, Huanghuai region of China; SR, Southern region of China. d The demethylase activity assay of GmLDL2^H1 and GmLDL2^H2 in N.benthamiana leaves. GmLDL2^H1-GFP and GmLDL2^H2-GFP expression in N.benthamiana nuclei (arrows) was visualized by monitoring GFP fluorescence (green). The histone methylation status was analyzed by immunostaining with specific histone methylation antibodies (red). The location of nuclei was visualized using 4’,6-diamidine-2-phenylindole staining (blue). Scale bars, 50 μm. e Statistical analysis of the levels of fluorescent signals in (d). Data represent means ± SD (n = 3 biological replicates). The P value was generated from a two-sided Student’s t-test. At least 200 nuclei expressed GmLDL2^H1-GFP or GmLDL2^H2-GFP were analyzed in each biological replicate. f The affinity-purified recombinant His-GmLDL2^H1 and His-GmLDL2^H2 from E.coli were incubated with calf thymus histone for H3K4me1/2 demethylase activity assay, and the histone methylation status was determined using methylation-specific antibodies. His was used as the negative control, and anti-H3 was used as a loading control. The experiment was repeated three times independently with similar results. g Quantification analysis of (f) by ImageJ. Data represent means ± SD (n = 3 biological replicates). The P value was generated from a two-sided Student’s t-test. h–j Statistics of flowering time, plant height, and grain weight of soybean accessions carrying GmLDL2^H1 (n = 18 accessions) and GmLDL2^H2 (n = 46 accessions) under natural short-day conditions in Guangzhou and Sanya. The P value was generated from a two-sided Student’s t-test. In all the box plots, the center line indicates the median, the edges of the box represent the first and third quartiles, and the whiskers extend to the smallest and largest data points within 1.5 interquartile ranges from the edges. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.