Soybean Breeding and Germplasm
While rich soybean germplasm resources have been collected from all over the world, few have contributed to commercial soybean varieties available in the U.S. About half of today's commercial soybean varieties is derived from three ancestral lines, and 80% of the contemporary crop is derived from just 12 [13 ACCORDING TO RESEARCH LANDING PAGE] ancestral lines.
The goal of the Checkoff's soybean breeding and germplasm initiative is simple: improve U.S. soybeans. To that end, the Checkoff has a long-standing commitment to supporting soybean germplasm research to improve soybean traits such as composition or disease resistance and provide the subsequent germplasm to breeders and farmers.
The Germplasm Breeding Initiative (GBI) is a multi-year research initiative focused on finding new genes that can improve soybean traits, so they can then be used in new germplasm. Through the GBI, researchers find sources of disease resistance, study the genetics of resistance, and then move the resistance into readily adaptable lines.
Searching, mapping, and identifying new genes that increase yield are priorities. Through gene mapping, researchers have identified promising yield genes and continue to test lines from the identified populations at multiple field locations. The trials provide data on yield and agronomic ratings. Once the most useful genes are mapped, they will be bred into elite germplasm and released.
One of the main focuses of the effort to use perennial soybeans in soybean germplasm and breeding research is transferring original traits from wild perennial soybeans to elite soybean varieties. These hybridization techniques have already led to finding resistance to soybean cyst nematode (SCN), sudden death syndrome (SDS), bean pod mottle virus, white mold, brown stem rot, phytophthora root rot, and soybean rust.
To learn more about soybean genomics, go to http://soybeangenomics.cropsci.uiuc.edu.
Southern Illinois University (SIU) breeders are focusing on adding multiple disease resistance to new releases. In addition to SCN and SDS, breeders are looking at southern root-knot nematode (RKN), stem canker, charcoal rot, frog-eye leaf spot, and more. Dr. Michael Schmidt, who teaches plant breeding and genetics at SIU, says the university's location allows researchers to take advantage of both northern and southern germplasm pools, as well as select and test thousands of new varieties each year. Learn more at http://www.siu.edu/~soybean.
Perennial glycine species have been found to have some resistance to soybean rust, bean pod mottle virus (BPMV), soybean aphid, and SCN. University of Illinois soybean breeders have devised a procedure that makes it possible to cross at least one of those perennial species, Glycine tomentella, with soybeans to try to capture that resistance for commercial U.S. varieties. Through a series of hybridization techniques, researchers hope to incorporate genetic material from G.tomentella into new soybean lines. Using greenhouses to grow plants year-round, breeders hope to have fertile soybean plants with G.tomentella genes ready to grow in the field by 2007.
Checkoff-funded researchers are working to move useful yield genes into elite germplasm that can be directly released to farmers or be utilized as parents in other breeding programs. During the past few years, University of Illinois and SIU soybean breeding programs have shared field-testing resources and genetic material to develop and release new varieties and experimental lines. The University of Illinois released two experimental lines for other soybean breeders to use as parents. LN97-15076 is a high-yielding, maturity group IV line, and LDX01-1-65 has SCN resistance from the wild soybean. The release of LDX01-1-65 represents a source of new SCN resistance genes. SIU plans to release LS98-0582, a high-yielding SCN- and SDS-resistant, mid-group IV, conventional variety.