This proposed work aims to conduct a survey of important stem diseases and insect pests affecting soybean, identifying pests and assessing adopted management practices.

Conduct a survey to evaluate producers’ assessment of the incidence and severity of soybean stem diseases and insect pests and their impact on yield.
Collect infected plant material from production fields across Illinois.
Identify the main pathogen and pest species.

A survey will be conducted to evaluate producers’ assessment of the incidence and severity of soybean stem diseases and insect pests and their impact on yield. The survey will be conducted in collaboration with Illinois Extension and the Illinois Cooperative Agriculture Pest Survey Program as well as ISA. Data will be collected, analyzed, and communicated to different targeted groups (see communication plan).

Producers, crop consultants, and researchers will be invited to identify soybean production fields with a reported incidence of stem diseases and insect pests and/or to collect plants with symptoms of stem diseases. This will be complemented with surveying for stem disease and insect pests and collecting diseased plant samples by the collaborators on this project. The collected samples will be processed in the collaborators’ laboratories in Carbondale and Urbana. Symptoms will be documented, and the pathogens and insect pests identified. The identity of the pathogens will be confirmed by microscopy and/or using specific molecular tools, including the amplification, and sequencing of specific fungal and oomycete DNA barcodes, mainly the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region and the Translation Elongation Factor 1? (TEF1?) region.

The isolated and cultured fungal and oomycete species will be processed for mid- and long-term storage and added to existing collections of pathogens of soybean housed in the collaborators’ laboratories in Carbondale and Urbana.

Communications plan – This proposal's target audience includes soybean farmers, researchers, extension agents, and crop advisors. Research results will be summarized in quarterly reports. They will be distributed to the research and agricultural communities through scientific papers, extension publications posted on the Crop Protection Network, and presentations at scientific and farmer meetings. The data will also be shared with Illinois’ growers and crop advisors by collaborating with the ISA communication team. The produced data will be used to increase awareness of stem diseases of soybean in Illinois. The produced data will also help guide future studies targeting the management of those diseases.

We will be working closely with ISA to disseminate our results to producers, crop consultants, and other researchers taking advantage of the various communication tools that ISA already has in place. The findings will also be shared through presentations and publications and by coordinating efforts through venues such as the crop protection network.

The proposed research will improve our understanding of the perceived and actual impact of stem diseases and insect pests on soybean production in IL. It will also help identify new and emerging pathogens and pests that could affect soybean production in IL. The generated information would be crucial to direct and prioritize future research targeting the management of these pathogens and pests in IL.

Proposed outcomes - The proposed research will improve our understanding of stem diseases' perceived and actual impact on soybean production in Illinois. It will also help identify the major and most impactful pathogens that cause these diseases in IL. More specifically, this proposed research will:

1. Monitor the incidence and spread of red crown rot in Illinois. This will help elucidate the importance of this pathogen in Illinois and whether this disease is expanding in the state.

Determine what fungal species cause stem canker in Illinois. This information is essential to manage the disease and use adequate management tools, including developing and deploying adequate sources of resistance to the pathogen.
Assess the incidence and the potential yield loss caused by Dectes stem borer in soybean production fields in Illinois.
Assess and survey Illinois soybean fields for the soybean gall midge with the purpose of early detection of this new soybean pest.
Result in building a collection of pathogens associated with stem diseases. Such collections are an invaluable resource for researchers to study the biology of these pathogens. They also permit assessing host resistance under controlled conditions.
The information generated from the proposed research will be crucial to direct and prioritize future research targeting the management of the most destructive soybean stem-diseases-causing pathogens in Illinois.

The produced data will be used to increase awareness of stem diseases of soybean in Illinois. The produced data will also help guide future studies targeting the management of those diseases.