The overall goal of this project is to maximize farmer profits through the development of rust-resistant varieties, which will reduce the need to spray fungicides to control the disease. This goal will be achieved by first verifying the resistance level of rust resistance sources, and then mapping resistance genes in these sources. Maturity group (MG) II to VII varieties will then be developed that carry these genes, and more importantly, resources will be made available to both the private and public sectors of the soybean breeding community so that they can develop rust resistant varieties. These efforts will be focused on mapping and on breeding varieties with both qualitative resistance (single gene) and quantitative, or slow rusting resistance (quantitative trait loci or QTL). We plan to incorporate into our research protocol new genomics tools that have been or are being developed, which should increase our rate of research progress. We expect that by the end of year one of this new project, we will have released varieties adapted to the Midwest and the Southeast that carry qualitative rust resistance genes.