Updated February 1, 2021:
In year one of this project we performed whole-genome genotyping on 5,000 soybean accessions taken from the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection. The whole-genome genotyping was performed by sequencing each accession, to a low coverage, followed by imputation to create a marker database of over ten million markers for each of the 5,000 accessions. This method of sequencing followed by imputation provides data that is 95% accurate. Due to COVID19, progress was delayed on this project where we will complete the sequencing of all 5,000 accession by December of 2020. When this project is complete the data will be used as a research community resource that both public and private industry breeders and researchers can access to help guide their research for improving soybean. It will be a roadmap of where the genetic diversity is located among these soybean accessions and how to best access this genetic diversity to improve agronomic traits important to farmers.