Housed within the University of Illinois National Soybean Research Center in Urbana, Ill., the National Soybean Germplasm Collection is overseen by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

The Germplasm Collection acquires, characterizes, evaluates, maintains, utilizes and distributes soybean germplasm accessions collected from around the world. Simply put, germplasm accessions are plants, seeds or plant parts used for crop breeding, research and conservation efforts.

For more than 125 years, global plant exploration and collection efforts have been essential to U.S. agriculture. That’s because only one of the top 20 major world crops — sunflowers — originated in North America.

In 1898, Congress recognized the need to ensure U.S. food security and appropriated funds for the establishment of the USDA Plant Exploration Program. Soon after, new wheat varieties were brought back to the U.S. from Russia. The success of the introduced wheat varieties was hard to miss—U.S. wheat production grew from 60,000 to 20 million bushels per year.

Around that time, only eight varieties of soybeans were grown in the U.S., and their primary use was animal forage. Then in 1905, agricultural explorer Frank Meyer began collecting soybean varieties from China, ultimately delivering 42 new varieties to the U.S., in addition to thousands of other plants. The soybean variety that gave rise to soy oil production was one of those collected by Meyer.

After the exploration and collection of plants, there are many more steps that must be completed before the seed varieties are ready for commercial agricultural use. The biggest and most time-consuming step, often spanning multiple years, is plant breeding and research.

Eliana Monteverde, Ph.D., is a researcher at the University of Illinois who utilizes the resources of the Germplasm Center.

Monteverde is an Assistant Professor in the Crop Sciences department who leads the soybean breeding program. She is working on two projects that are partially funded by the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA).

The first project is continuing the breeding efforts to select and license soybean varieties that help Illinois farmers capitalize on market opportunities for high oleic, low linolenic soybean oil. With this research, the team intends to release two to four new varieties each year.

Monteverde’s second project funded by ISA is working to develop additional lines of varietal resistance to soybean cyst nematode (SCN). Through this project, researchers have identified three- and four-gene combinations and will develop lines with those stacks so Rooted in Research: USDA’S Global Soybean Germplasm Collection Funded by the Illinois Soybean Checkoff August 2025 11 farmers can rotate different genetic modes of resistance to manage and reduce SCN populations.

When soybean researchers go to breed a better plant variety, they start by turning to the over 23,000 accessions available for their use at the Germplasm Center.

“Red-crown rot is an emerging disease in Illinois, and we’re planning on surveying the germplasm bank to address it,” Monteverde said. “We don’t have any disease resistance currently for that disease. In the ‘library of genes’ available to use, we can go and search and test genes and then we can go and add them to more current lines.”

Much of the groundwork for initial plant breeding for new and improved varieties is done at public institutions, as opposed to the private sector, due to the time and expense involved.

Plant exploring, collecting, maintenance and breeding is critical for agriculture and for food supplies because plants must be continually enhanced to overcome diseases, pests and changing growing conditions. Plants can also be bred to be more productive, nutritious or better tasting, and new genetic material is needed to make this possible.

Today, the USDA-ARS operates the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System, which includes 27 specialized federal, state and private institution sites. Each of these sites is responsible for one or more crop collections. Generally, sites and locations are strategically chosen based on where the crops are grown.

But the USDA’s fiscal year 2026 (FY26) budget for the ARS includes some recommended changes to facilities, staffing and budgets.

For FY26, the USDA-ARS labs in Urbana are all proposed for closure and consolidation.

The Integrated Weed Management Systems lab/program is proposed for relocation to Peoria, Ill.; the Resistance to Soybean Pathogens and Pests lab/program is proposed to relocate to Columbia, Mo.; the Management, Utilization, and Distribution of Maize Genetic Stocks lab and Photosynthesis for Agricultural Resiliency and Sustainability labs are proposed to move to Ames, Iowa. And lastly, the Genetic Resources in the National Soybean Germplasm Collection are proposed to move to Columbia, Mo.

Overall, the USDA’s 2026 request for discretionary budget authority from Congress to fund programs and operating expenses is $23 billion, which is $6.7 billion below the 2025 Enacted Continuing Resolution levels.

With that in mind, the Urbana USDA-ARS location is proposed to have no budget and no employees in FY 2026, effectively closing the lab.

“The University of Illinois’ collaboration with ARS is longstanding and has been impactful for U.S. farmers, global food security, bioenergy and crop resilience,” said Adam Davis, Ph.D., Professor and Department Head, Crop Sciences. “The unit’s location at the university benefits from the top-ranked College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, and robust interdisciplinary collaborations such as with the Institute for Genomic Biology and the Institute for Sustainability Energy and Environment.”

Davis notes that moving these programs is not as easy as moving a laboratory.

“The collections are integrated systems that include personnel, workflows and recurring field cycles to maintain the viability of the seeds,” explained Davis. “Moving these collections adds unnecessary and wasteful new costs for facilities, greenhouses and fields. It also risks losing experienced personnel and introduces unnecessary loss risks to irreplaceable genetic resources.”

The Soybean Germplasm Collection at University of Illinois currently has over 23,000 accessions with the capacity to expand to an incredible 40,000, ensuring the long-term conservation of soybean variability.

Being housed within the No. 1 soybean-producing state with close ties to resources ensures the National Soybean Research Center is strategically positioned for the future. That’s why ISA and the University of Illinois have been actively engaging with Congress and the USDA to ensure that the National Soybean Research Center and the USDA-ARS labs stay in Illinois.