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Abstract
Soybean is the world’s leading source of vegetable protein and demand for its seed continues to grow. Breeders have successfully increased soybean yield, but the genetic architecture of yield and key agronomic traits is poorly understood. We developed a 40-mating soybean nested association mapping (NAM) population of 5,600 inbred lines that were characterized by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and six agronomic traits in field trials in 22 environments. Analysis of the yield, agronomic, and SNP data revealed 23 significant marker-trait associations for yield, 19 for maturity, 15 for plant height, 17 for plant lodging, and 29 for seed mass. A higher frequency of estimated positive yield alleles was evident from elite founder parents than from exotic founders, although unique desirable alleles from the exotic group were identified, demonstrating the value of expanding the genetic base of US soybean breeding.
Details
1 Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 61801
2 Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, 68583
3 Department of Agronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907
4 USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD, 20705
5 Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011
6 USDA-ARS and Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 61801
7 Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506
8 Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824
9 Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri Delta Center, Portageville, MO, 63873
10 Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210
11 Plant, Soil, and Agricultural Systems, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, 62901
12 Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, IN, 46268
13 USDA-ARS, Raleigh, NC, 27606
14 Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 55108
15 USDA-ARS Plant Genetic Research Unit at Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, 63132