2012 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416): 1. Develop breeding populations integrating high protein, low phytate and/or improved amino acid profiles with high yielding and other desired traits in maturity groups 0-II; 2. Develop and release new germplasm lines with high protein (40% at 13% moisture) and/or low phytate; 3. Develop and release high yielding varieties with improved protein and low phytate; and 4. Identify and validate breeder-friendly molecular markers associated with high protein. 1b.Approach (from AD-416): Conventional breeding procedures will be predominantly employed. New high-protein lines (e.g. SD00-1501, M02-375017, M03-184050, M03-184083, E07130-T, E07147-T, etc.) and low phytate lines (e.g. M03-917303, M03-809146, etc.) will be crossed to high-yielding lines. SSD will used to advance generations and individual selection will also be conducted in early generations for major agronomic characters or resistance in some cases. Protein analysis will be performed by NIR and NMR. SSR markers and RIL population will be used for QTL mapping. 3.Progress Report: This project is related to Objective 2 of the in-house project: To discover novel genes/alleles in soybean for seed composition, determine their inheritance, determine genomic location, transfer to adapted germplasm, and release. We continued seed processing and cleaning for further quality analysis. Based on the results and the Uniform Test (UT) and Quality Test (QT) testing data, we further evaluated breeding lines and selected superior lines for further tests and ultimately release of high-protein and/or low-phytate varieties and/or germplasm lines. The F1 seeds and 10 F2 populations were grown in the greenhouse to advance the generation. Analysis of protein and other quality traits were performed with different materials: QT entries, Advanced Yield Trials (AYT) entries, 330 Plant Introductions (PI) lines, protein population, etc. Two high-protein lines were recommended to the regional Quality Traits Test and the Uniform Preliminary Test. A high-yield, high-quality (36.6-38.7% protein and 17.4-19.8% oil at 13% moisture) and large-seed conventional line (SD04CV-611) was approved for seed increase with intention of release. About 100 more DNA (SSR) markers were screened with the recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from the high-protein line SD00-1501. Further evaluation and QTL analysis will be performed for protein, oil and yield with another RIL population with which a primary analysis has been done.