Project Number: 3611-21000-023-09
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jun 26, 2008
End Date: Mar 31, 2009

Objective:
Our objective is the identification and utilization of exotic germplasm to improve U.S. soybean productivity. We will deliver 1) high yielding lines derived from exotic germplasm that are available to all U.S. soybean breeders developing new cultivars, and 2) QTLs affecting yield with the positive allele derived from exotic germplasm.

Approach:
Develop high yielding experimental lines derived from exotic germplasm accessions and release those lines to breeders, especially in private industry, to be used as parents in cultivar developement programs. Identify exotic germplasm and experimental lines derived from exotic germplasm that can improve yield and seed quality in the early planting production system in the midsouth. Develop and test genetic mapping populations that can identify genomic regions from exotic germplasm that can increase yield in U.S. cultivars. Use SNP marker technology to characterize ancestral lines and modern cultivars to determine genetic changes that have occurred as a result of 70 years of soybean breeding in the U.S. and compare those changes to the genetic changes that have occurred in our breeding of high yielding lines from exotic germplasm.