Integrating omic approaches for abiotic stress tolerance in soybean

Rupesh Deshmukh, Humira Sonah, Gunvant Patil, Wei Chen, Silvas Prince, Raymond Mutava, Tri Vuong, Babu Valliyodan, Henry T. Nguyen

Soybean production is greatly influenced by abiotic stresses imposed by environmental factors such as drought, water submergence, salt, and heavy metals. A thorough understanding of plant response to abiotic stress at the molecular level is a prerequisite for its effective management. The molecular mechanism of stress tolerance is complex and requires information at the omic level to understand it effectively. In this regard, enormous progress has been made in the omics field in the areas of genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics. The emerging field of ionomics is also being employed for investigating abiotic stress tolerance in soybean. Omic approaches generate a huge amount of data, and adequate advancements in computational tools have been achieved for effective analysis. However, the integration of omic-scale information to address complex genetics and physiological questions is still a challenge. In this review, we have described advances in omic tools in the view of conventional and modern approaches being used to dissect abiotic stress tolerance in soybean. Emphasis was given to approaches such as quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and genomic selection (GS). Comparative genomics and candidate gene approaches are also discussed considering identification of potential genomic loci, genes, and biochemical pathways involved in stress tolerance mechanism in soybean. This review also provides a comprehensive catalog of available online omic resources for soybean and its effective utilization. We have also addressed the significance of phenomics in the integrated approaches and recognized high-throughput multi-dimensional phenotyping as a major limiting factor for the improvement of abiotic stress tolerance in soybean.