Soybean is the major grain legume crop in the United States with an estimated value of over 10.6 billion dollars. The main pest of soybean in the United States is the soybean cyst nematode (SCN). SCN causes up to one billion dollars in loss off soybean each year in the United States. Soybean rust is a new disease in the U.S. found in November, 2004. It may become as important as SCN in the U.S. Our laboratory’s focus is to broaden the resistance of soybean to the soybean cyst nematode and to soybean rust.
Microarrays are being used at the USDA, Beltsville to study the response of soybean to the soybean cyst nematode and soybean rust.
The primary goals of the Matthews' laboratory are:
1) to identify soybean genes important to resistance to the soybean cyst nematode and soybean rust using microarrays and functional genomics. A number ofmicroarray experiments have already been completed.
2) to design and test new strategies to broaden resistance of soybean to SCN and soybean rust.
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