Nothing has done more to change agriculture since the Green Revolution than the invention of transgenic herbicide resistant crops (Anderson, 2019). However, most of these herbicide traits are protected by intellectual property patent law by the inventing company and must be licensed if possible. Some herbicide trait patents have expired allowing them to be used by the public. This includes soybean RoundUp Ready 1 (glyphosate) and soon the first event of LibertyLink (glufosinate). These traits were released in the 1996 and 2009, respectively, however the herbicide tolerances are still useful in the new soybean production areas of western North Dakota. A more modern herbicide technology, Enlist E3, has a stack of glyphosate, glufosinate, and 2,4-D choline that is still under patent. As private and public partnerships are becoming more common, it is becoming easier to reach agreements with private companies to license their herbicide traits. With herbicide trait resistance one of the strongest drivers of the soybean market driven by ever increasing herbicide resistant weeds, it is imperative that the NDSU soybean breeding program adopt as much technology as possible.
Acquiring new herbicide traits brings an added challenge of having elite, high yielding germplasm to introgress the trait into. A soybean variety with Enlist E3 that only yields 40 bushels per acre is still not competitive or advantageous to growers. It is necessary to invest in other modern breeding technologies to expedite the creation of high yielding varieties. One methodology that has been proven successful is genomic prediction. Yield is a quantitative or a multi-genic trait and single gene markers have not been effective to identify lines with high yield potential. However, by utilizing markers that span the entire genome, it is possible to use algorithms to identify key allelic combinations of the genomic markers that correlate to increased yield potential (Sebastian, 2010; Jarquín, 2014). Pioneer Hi-Bred international led the genomic prediction tool implementation and it has generally been accepted as the most useful selection tool by private industry. Although it has been slow to be adopted into public breeding programs (Lorenz 2011). However, as the cost of genotyping continues to fall, it is becoming more accessible to public breeders. Thanks to the NCSRP Soygen project, most advanced materials in the NDSU soybean breeding program have been genotyped with a 1k SNP marker array (https://www.agriplexgenomics.com/soybean-community-panel) that can be used to develop a prediction model. Further genotyping of the NDSU soybean breeding program is necessary to implement the prediction model.

• Creation of high yielding varieties with herbicide traits.
• Development of a prediction tool that will facilitate more accurate selection of high yielding lines.
• Development of a prediction tool that will facilitate more accurate selection of early maturing 00 lines before being tested in their correct environment.

The trait introgression pipeline will be the final step in creation of competitive, high yielding soybean varieties with acquired herbicide traits. This improved pipeline will lead to faster creation of released varieties. The genomic prediction tool will also facilitate faster creation of high yielding varieties by assisting the breeder in decision making both for yield and maturity before conducting years of yield testing. Students will also be trained to create these prediction models which is a desirable skill set for
employment.

Updated April 23, 2024:

This project will directly benefit ND farmers with the creation of high yielding, disease resistance varieties that are created specifically for North Dakota. NDSU soybean varieties are typically less expensive than private company varieties. This project will allow the NDSU soybean breeding program to have yields and herbicide traits that rival private company varieties.