• Task 1: By the end of the project we will have verified copy number differences identified during the current year, and tested the SCN resistance and obtained at least one field season of agronomic performance data for lines derived from plants with verified difference. Additional screening and selection for plants with copy number variation will be completed.
• Task 2: By the end of the project we will provide information regarding variable DNA methylation at the Rhg1 locus, and variable Rhg1 RNA expression, and its correlation with observed differences in the SCN resistance of different soybean lines that carry similar Rhg1 haplotypes. We will develop and test assays for Rhg1 DNA methylation and RNA expression that can be used in breeding, with greater emphasis placed on the trait (methylation or RNA expression) that our findings indicate can most successfully be assayed and used to predict relative SCN resistance.
• Task 3: We expect by the end of the project to have identified the relevant SCN resistance-conferring gene at one of the PI 468916-derived loci cqSCN006 or cqSCN007. Seed increases of one line with these resistance genes will be in progress to produce seed for commercial sale. One line also will be made available to private industry breeders for use as a parent in breeding programs.
• Task 4: Project findings will be presented at scientific meetings, and scientific publications reporting the work will be submitted or in preparation.

Updated December 10, 2019:
The research team made progress on multiple fronts in our identification and manipulation of plant traits that control soybean resistance to soybean cyst nematode.
Highlights include:
• Soybean germplasm development and characterization for both naturally occurring and transgenically developed new versions of the Rhg1 locus, which plays a major role in SCN resistance.
• Two scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals, one reporting early gene expression responses of soybean to soybean cyst nematode HG type 0, and the other reporting the unexpected and usefully predictive presence of a "copia retrotransposon" (mobile DNA element) within one of the Peking-type Rhg1 genes.
• Two additional scientific manuscripts submitted to peer-reviewed journals, reporting that the gamma-SNAP encoded at cqSCN-006 contributes to SCN resistance, and reporting syntaxins that contribute to SCN resistance.
• Additional proteins identified by the research team that are contributors to SCN resistance.
• Achievement of new focus on a smaller set of candidate genes that are the likely cause of the SCN resistance trait conferred by the cqSCN-007 quantitative trait locus.
• Development and initial use of Rhg1 locus DNA methylation assays to assess the potential contribution of differential Rhg1 locus methylation to SCN resistance.