Soybean Breeding and Genetics

Zenglu LiDepartment of Crop and Soil Sciences

/ Center for Applied Genetic Technologies

March 9, 2015

AcknowledgementsPostdoc Scientists and Graduate Students

Donna Harris

Justin Vaughn

Zi Shi

Zach King

Ben Stewart-Brown

Clint Steketee

Nicole Bachleda

Mary Campbell

Evan McCoy

Collaborators within UGA

Roger Boerma

Jim Noe

James Buck

John All

Scott Jackson

Wayne Parrott

Eric Prostko

Jared Whitaker

Tim Grey

Many others

Research Staff

Dale Wood

Gina Bishop

Earl Baxter

Steve Finnerty

Brice Wilson

Colleen Wu

Tatyana Nienow

Manuel Mendez

Support: CAES, CRSS, CAGT, IPBGG, OVPR and GSDC

Funding Support:United Soybean BoardGeorgia Agricultural Commodity Commission for Soybeans University of Georgia Research Foundation

Collaborators outside UGA

Tommy Carter

Grover Shannon

Ben Fallen

Andrew Scaboo

Pengyin Chen

Kristin Bilyeu

Perry Cregan

Tom Sinclair

Bill Schapaugh

Former postdoc & staff

Anh Pham

Jinhee Shin

Hussein Haleem

Chris Collins

Goals of Soybean Program

1) Develop soybean varieties adapted to southeastern USA

2) Plant phenotyping for new trait discovery

3) Development and utilization of genomic tools to

support soybean breeding

4) Train future plant breeders

Soybean Breeding and Germplasm Enhancement Cultivar releases

2013 – 1 RR1 cultivar 2014 – 3 RR2 cultivars

Germplasm releases 2013 – 2 germplasm (Diversity for yield) 2014 – 2 germplasm (Diversity for yield) 2015 – 4 germplasm (Rust near-isogenic lines)

Expected releases in 2015-2016 1 RR2Y cultivar 2 LibertyLink cultivars

Soybean Variety Development Herbicide tolerance

RR2 Yield® and LibertyLink® as base platforms for breeding Access to Enlist Technology (Dow) for future breeding

Strong pipeline materials 9 RR2Y lines exceeded commercial checks (>4%) 6 LibertyLink lines advanced for testing for release

Utilization of genetic technologies Genomic selection for improved yield in soybean Lead 7 University/USDA-ARS breeding programs

Breeding for drought tolerance Greenhouse and field phenotyping with advancement

equipment Identify QTL or metabolites for drought tolerance Incorporate them into elite lines Transcriptomic analysis to confirm the slow wilting QTL

QTL for salt and aluminum tolerance

Genetic Improvement for Abiotic Stress Tolerance

A production problem in Southeast 2012 Drought: Yield loss ~20%

Slow vs. Fast Wilting

Genetic Improvement for Nematode Resistance Most yield limiting pests of

soybean in the U.S. Soybean cyst nematode Root-knot nematode Reniform nematode

lumination.missouri.edu

Breeding for nematode resistance using molecular tools Fine mapped major QTL on Chr 10 from PI 96354 and

developed functional markers for MAS Developed SNP assays of Rhg1 and Rhg4 for resistance to SCN Fine map QTL on LG-F for both Ma and Mj resistance

Genetic Improvement for Protein and Protein Quality

Southern regions favor enhanced protein Low concentration of the sulfur containing amino acids GWAS for seed composition

Refined chr 20 protein QTL and developed robust makers

Chr 2 and 6 contain strong candidate QTL for Cys and Lys, respectively

3 QTL (chr 2, 6, & 9) for Threonine

No genetic variation for MetCys QTL

QTL from Danbaekkong could increase protein 3%

Breeding and Improvement of Soybean Fatty Acids Breeding Goals

>75% oleic (2 genes) & <3% linolenic acid (1 or 2 genes) Deliver a trans fat free soybean oil

Backcrossing and forward approaches Developed high oleic and low linolenic lines One year test indicated no yield drag and >80% oleic acid

Characterized the genes and developed diagnostic markers for MAS High oleic acid Low linolenic acid Low palmitic acid

http://loss-of-weight-allegiance.com

Genetic Solutions against Disease and Insects Soybean Rust

Found in the continental USA in late 2004

Develop high yield lines with rust and herbicide resistance

Identified 2 new genes and fine mapping 2 genes

Kudzu bugs A new invasive pest of soybeans in Georgia

Average yield loss of 20% with a range of 0-47%

Identify QTL and breed for Kudzu bug tolerance

Deploy insect resistance QTL in soybean varieties QTL on Lg-E, -M, -G, and -H

High-Throughput DNA Extraction from Leaf and Seed Samples and Genotyping

Mantis Dispenser

Bravo Liquid Handler

TECAN Infinite Reader

Robust markers for genotyping Over 40,000 samples per year were screenedSNP allele calls

Homozygous MUT

Homozygous WT

HET

Summary and Impact of Research

Released soybean cultivars and germplasm – farmers’ field and soybean breeders

QTL and novel sources of traits for germplasm introgression and enhancement

Markers and platform used for molecular breeding to improve the breeding efficiency

Methodologies used in QTL and trait discovery Train graduate students and postdoctoral

scientists

Thank You!