. 2015. Evaluation of spontaneous generation of allelic variation in soybean in response to sexual hybridization and stress. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 405Á415. Intracultivar variation reported in pure lines of soybean has been hypothesized to result from genetic mechanisms contributing to de novo genetic variation. In this study we have detected allele switching by following segregation patterns of Aconitase-4 isozyme in sexual crosses and pure lines. In sexual crosses, one F 2 plant showed a switch at the Aconitase-4 (Aco4) locus from the expected heterozygous genotype Aco4-ac to Aco4-ab. In the pure lines grown in a honeycomb planting design and treated with an accelerated aging test, multiple cases of allele switching were detected at the Aco4 locus. Both single and double switches were detected that were stable and heritable. These findings indicate that the generation of endogenous variation continues in pure lines as a result of intrinsic genetic mechanisms. With a long-term goal of understanding the genetic nature of the changes, we genetically mapped the Aco4 gene to a 3.3 cM region on Chromosome 11. The corresponding physical region is Â293 kb with 39 predicted genes. Of these, Glyma.11g080600 is of particular interest, as it shows 93% and 88% identity to Medicago truncatula and Arabidopsis aconitase genes, respectively. Further characterization of the soybean Aco4 gene may shed light on genetic mechanisms responsible for allele switching.Key words: Allele switching, soybean, aconitase, linkage mapping, isozyme Espinosa, K., Boelter, J., Lolle, S., Hopkins, M., Goggi, S., Palmer, R. G. et Sandhu, D. 2015. É valuation des variations alle´liques spontane´es chez le soja conse´cutivement a`l'hybridation et au stress. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 405Á415. On a formuleĺ 'hypothe`se que les variations intra-cultivar signale´es chez les ligne´es pures de soja pourraient de´couler de me´canismes ge´ne´tiques autorisant une variation ge´ne´tique de novo. Les auteurs ont identifie´la permutation d'alle`les en suivant la se´gre´gation de l'isozyme aconitase-4 dans les croisements sexuels et les ligne´es pures. Dans les croisements sexuels, un plant de la F 2 pre´sentait une permutation au locus Aconitase-4 (Aco4) du ge´notype he´te´rozygote pre´vu Aco4-ac au ge´notype Aco4-ab. Dans les ligne´es pures cultive´es en quinconce et soumises a`un essai de vieillissement acce´le´re´, les auteurs ont de´tecte´de nombreux cas de permutation d'alle`les au locus Aco4. Des permutations simples et doubles stables et transmissibles ont ainsi e´te´discerne´es. Ces re´sultats indiquent que les variations endoge`nes se poursuivent dans les ligne´es pures en raison de me´canismes ge´ne´tiques intrinse`ques. Dans le but ultime d'e´lucider la nature ge´ne´tique de tels changements, les auteurs ont situe´le ge`ne Aco4 sur une re´gion de 3,3 cM du chromosome 11. La zone physique correspondante mesure environ 293 kb et comprend 39 ge`nes explicatifs. Parmi eux, Glyma.11g080600 reveˆt un inte´reˆt particulier, car il ressemble a`93 % et a`88 % au...