1. Variety and germplasm development. Each year we will: hybridize selected parents in the fall and winter greenhouses, and summer growing seasons to produce progeny for this project; advance populations and lines lines for evaluation; plant and maintain field plots; collect agronomic, environmental, genomic and spatial data throughout the growing season; harvest plots in the fall; summarize and analyze data; plant and maintain fall and winter greenhouses and utilize winter nursery facilities to advance and increase populations and lines; and build training populations to discover new genes (markers), and optimize genomic and phenotypic selection models. Parents will be selected based on achieving the goals of producing progeny that will contribute to the genetic gain for soybean seed yield, increased genetic diversity in the US soybean gene pool, optimizing seed composition, and enhancing pest resistance and drought and heat tolerance. Breeding lines will be screened for resistance to multiple SCN populations representing the virulence diversity existing across Kansas. Throughout these breeding activities we will continue to stive to engage private breeders in collaborative activities to help them develop new materials for the farmer.

Combining resistances to important pathogens, optimizing seed composition (high oleic oil), enhancing genetic diversity and improving abiotic stress (drought and heat) resistance will help enable public and private breeding programs to sustain improvement of resilient soybean varieties able to meet the production and quality of soybean products needed in the marketplace. Elite as well as potentially “good” diverse germplasm will be used as parents to develop new progeny to help bridge the gap in performance between exotic germplasm and elite varieties. High oleic, low linolenic soybean represents a value-added commodity. There is also a need to produce high-protein soybean meal, and increase the amount of soybean oil produced per acre to help meet the demand for soybean oil in such produces as biofuels. We will continue to incorporate these traits into KS adapted varieties. Resistance to SCN continues to be dominanted by the PI 88788 source in both public and private soybean varieties, despite the fact that HG Type 2 SCN populations, which reproduce well on this source of resistance, now dominate the North Central Region, including Kansas. Several recent releases by the KSU Soybean Breeding Program have utilized sources of resistance other than PI 88788 that have proven to be resistant to diverse HG Type 2 populations from across Kansas. Additionally, novel sources of resistance, including resistance gene stacks are being developed by soybean breeders, and these new resistances need to be incorporated into Kansas soybean germplasm to provide more durable resistance in the future.

2. Develop, evaluate and implement breeding technologies. We are currently testing a genomic selection model developed at the Univ. of Minnesota. This research involves developing lines and populations, build training sets and optimize models for Kansas growing conditions. Remote sensing technology will be combined with genomic selection to improve the speed and accuracy of identifying superior breeding material for both yield and seed composition.

Focusing on the development and use of new technologies will help improve genetic gain across public and private breeding programs. Advances in genomics have made genotyping cost effective, but robust models must be capable of predicting phenotypic performance. We are working with the soybean breeders and geneticists in the North Central US to test the effectiveness of recurrent selection of F1 progeny in soybean using genomic selection to predict progeny performance. This method has the potential to improve selection accuracy, reduce the time required to develop new varieties and increase the performance of the progeny relative to current breeding methods. Here we propose to further develop our genomic selection capabilities and combine traditional phenotypic selection with genomic selection and remote sensing to help develop robust genomic selection methods for soybean breeding based on Kansas environments and Kansas germplasm. Also, we will use and validate marker assisted selection to compliment phenotyping of traits such as Soybean Cyst Nematode resistance.

3. Transfer transgenic events into elite breeding lines. For SCN resistant events, we will focus on incorporating transgenic traits into early MG4 lines with high yield potential from the KSU breeding program. Incorporating the transgenic traits into elite varieties with and without traditional sources of SCN resistance may help determine if there is any synergistic effect of multiple sources of SCN resistance. As events from the Dectes stem borer and the SDS resistance project are identified they will also be incorporated into appropriate elite varieties Presence of the transgene(s) in progeny will be determined using molecular markers. Lines will be rescreened for SCN resistance in greenhouse and field bioassays.

Field tests demonstrated lines expressing transgenes targeting nematode fitness decreased SCN cyst and egg numbers compared to non-transgenic controls. Breeding these lines with elite lines containing conventional sources of resistances would be important to determine if there is a synergistic effect by stacking resistance traits. Providing breeding programs with novel modes of resistance against both SCN and Fusarium virguliforme should help reduce the economical impact of these two organisms.

1. Develop soybean varieties and germplasm (Maturity groups 3, 4 and 5) for on-farm production and use as genetic resources for other breeders with public or private breeding programs, focusing on traits including:
a. seed yield
b. high oleic and low linolenic soybean oil,
c. stacked traits, including Soybean Cyst Nematode and Soybean Sudden Death Syndrome resistance, optimal protein and oil composition, and abiotic stress tolerance.
2. Improve genetic gain through the development, evaluation and implementation of breeding technologies including marker assisted selection, genomic selection and phenomics.
3. Transfer desirable transgenic events into elite breeding lines.

• Varieties and germplasm in MGs 3 through 5 developed from this program can be used by private soybean breeders to develop new varieties. Some releases can be used directly by farmers for commercial production.
• Germplasm exchange with private and public breeding programs.
• Genomic information and improved techniques to develop improved soybean varieties.
• Extension publications, news releases, and experiment station reports, field days, extension meetings and tours will be used to share the results of this project.
• Web pages used to disseminate information on new releases and germplasm.
• Improved recommendations for appropriate management strategies.
• Peer reviewed publications.
• Trained undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students.

This public soybean breeding and genetics program is focused on developing varieties, germplasm and genetic resources that could be used directly by farmers for production, or by other soybean breeders and researchers. Many of the benefits to farmers would be indirect but still significant. Here's how:

Increased Innovation and Variety Development: By providing improved germplasm and genetic resources to other breeders, this program contributes to the overall innovation and progress in soybean breeding and genetics. This, in turn, can lead to the development of new soybean varieties with enhanced traits that are better suited to farmers' needs, such as higher yields, disease resistance, and stress tolerance.

Access to Advanced Traits: Farmers benefit from access to soybean varieties developed by other breeders who utilize the germplasm and genetic resources provided by this project. These varieties may offer improved traits, such as better oil quality, herbicide resistance, reduced susceptibility to pests and diseases, and enhanced adaptability to local growing conditions.

Diversification of Genetic Pool: The availability of diverse germplasm from our project enables other breeders to broaden the genetic diversity of their breeding programs. This can result in the development of soybean varieties with increased resilience to environmental stresses, improved diseases resistance, or other traits, which ultimately benefits farmers by reducing production risks and improving yield stability.

Cost-Effectiveness: Utilizing germplasm and genetic resources from our public research program can be more cost-effective for other breeders compared to developing these resources independently. This cost savings can be passed on to farmers in the form of more affordable varieties or investments in further research and development.

Collaborative Research and Knowledge Sharing: Our breeding and genetics program fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing among researchers, geneticists and breeders. This collaborative environment accelerates the pace of innovation and facilitates the exchange of best practices, leading to more rapid development and dissemination of improved soybean varieties, germplasm and genetic resources benefitting farmers.

While the benefits of our public soybean breeding and genetics program may not be directly realized by farmers in the same way as with private breeding programs, the indirect impacts are substantial. By contributing to the development of improved soybean varieties, germplasm, and breeding methodology, and fostering collaboration within the breeding and genetics community, public programs like ours play a critical role in advancing agricultural productivity, sustainability, and resilience, ultimately benefiting farmers and the broader agricultural sector.