Update:
We completed collection of IDC scores on over 6,000 plots at two Nebraska locations – Valley and North Bend. The Valley location was relatively mild, but still had good variation in scores for the material tested, ranging from a score of 1 (=no IDC symptoms) to 9 (dead meristem or plant). The North Bend location, as usual, was much more severe for IDC. Still, some lines had scores of 1 or 2, showing very high tolerance to IDC. Average IDC scores across locations (6 to 8 reps total) ranged from a low of 3.6 to a high of 8.3.
We completed our crossing objectives during July and early August for yield, SCN, seed composition, and other objectives. Hybrid seeds were harvested in September and planted in the lighted area at our Puerto Rico nursery during the last week of September. They are growing well. Plots at all locations escaped major hail and heavy rain damage, and looked really good throughout the season. We began data collection on plots in early September with some early maturity notes. Harvest began at the end of September. Many yields at the Cotesfield location, for our MG1 and MG2 lines, were over 100 bushels. We will complete harvest at the end of October for 30,000 advanced yield test plots at 10 Nebraska locations, and work on post-harvest data collection for seed traits, data analyses and summaries during November and early December. It looks like we have very good data for our Nebraska tests.
We began harvest of nearly 30,000 individual plants from populations developed from 2014 crosses. Those plants will be threshed individually and about 10,000 will go to the Chile nurseries in November. Selected lines will be harvested in March 2016 and come back to Nebraska for multi-location yield testing.
We grew increase plots, purification row plots, and breeder seed increases for new lines that are potential new soybean varieties from our program. In addition, Foundation Seed grew foundation seed increases of four of our conventional varieties, including U11-614093. That is a mid-Group 3 line that is high yielding in rainfed and irrigated production in Nebraska and across the north central region.
Our research on seed compositional quality continues with multiple projects, including one graduate student research project that is nearing completion, identifying genomic regions in soybean that are important in determining protein, oil, and carbohydrate concentration in the seed. We have thousands of recombinant inbred lines in multiple populations, and have identified some unique seed compositions, with increases in total protein and oil, and decreased total carbohydrates.
From October 2014 through September 2015 we shared seeds from over 60 of our new high-yield lines for testing and evaluation by companies, USDA, and other universities through Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) for evaluation and crossing.
We continue to make great progress improving yield in soybeans for our Nebraska production environments and across the north central region. Results of the 2014 USDA Uniform Soybean Tests (published January 2015) across the region showed Nebraska lines at the top of the tests for maturity group I, II, and III. The top 9 lines in the MG 1 test were Nebraska lines. Two of those top lines also have good SCN resistance and were evaluated in the regional SCN tests as well, where they were #1 and #2 in both infested and non-infested tests. We also had 5 of the top 10 lines in the MG 1 prelim test. The top two lines in the MG2 test were Nebraska lines, as well as 6 of the top 10. In the Prelim II B test, Nebraska lines were #1 and #2, as well as 7 of the top 10. Several of the lines in MG1 and MG2 have excellent phytophthora stem rot resistance as well. We have two high-yield lines in the MG3 advanced test that also have good phytophthora resistance. In the Prelim 3 test, we have the #1 yielding line as well as 6 of the top 10 in that test. The #1 group 3 lines in the prelim test is U11-614093. This line was #1 in every test we have grown since it was first tested. It was #1 in the 2011 Nebraska preliminary tests -- its first test out of progeny rows. It was #1 in our 2012 multi- location tests in Nebraska, as well as the 2011-12 2-year average. It was the #1 group 3 line in our 2013 and 2014 V tests in Nebraska, and now is #1 in the 2014 Regional tests. This line was in Foundation Seed production during 2015. Our breeding program produced 40-50 bushels of breeder seed during 2014. We have good progress on all objectives.
We advanced 66 lines in the 2015 USDA Uniform Regional Tests and four lines in the SCN tests. For advanced lines in the increase and purification process, we grew 29 increase plots, 10 variety purification plots, and 5 breeder seed increase plots. In addition, four of our advanced lines from 2014 were in Foundation Seed production during 2015.
We continue to identify and confirm genomic regions important in determining seed compositional quality – protein and oil concentration – and their interactions with yield and important agronomic traits. We identified new gene regions with important effects on seed oil concentration. From that study, new soybean germplasm lines with more than 26% seed oil on a dry matter basis were also identified. We continue to make progress in the high protein populations, and currently have soybean lines that average 60% protein on a dry matter basis. That was confirmed this summer with wet lab results from the University of Missouri lab. There is no other report of 60% protein in soybean seeds.