Four maturity genes, namely, E1, E2, E3 and E4, have been found to play major roles in controlling the flowering and maturity time of soybean. Which genotypes of E1–E4 genes provide effective adaptation to the varied conditions of Russia are unknown. To clarify this issue, we have studied the allele variation in soybean E1–E4 genes in terms of both flowering and maturity time under the natural day-length conditions of Central Russia and Western Siberia in a collection of 176 soybean accessions, including 142 Russian and 34 foreign accessions. As a result, a high frequency of previously determined E1–E4 alleles has been identified. The field experiment showed that genotypes with all recessive alleles from e1-nl/e2/e3/e4 and e1-as/e2/e3/e4 provide the effective adaptation of soybean to the mentioned conditions. Cultivars with these genotypes are considered to be most suitable for cultivation in Central Russia and Western Siberia.
