Project Number: 3625-21220-004-37
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Feb 17, 2012
End Date: Sep 30, 2014

Objective:
Phenotypic data will be collected on the parents and progeny of the Nested Association Mapping (NAM) populations. Field tests will total 28,800 plots annually and data will be collected on seed protein and oil content, yield, plant maturity, height and lodging. Locations of genes controlling these characters will be determined within the objectives of a separate USB-funded project.

Approach:
The research will be conducted using a series of 40 mapping populations that each contain 140 experimental lines giving a total of 5,600 experimental lines across all populations. These populations were developed by mating the maturity group (MG) III variety IA3023 with 40 diverse parents (i.e., soybean varieties and experimental lines). The 5,600 lines in the NAM populations will be grown in field tests during 2012 to 2013. One replication of the full set of lines will be grown in Ames, IA; Lincoln, NE; and Urbana, IL. In addition to growing these full sets of lines, partial sets of the populations will be grown in Carbondale, IL; Manhattan, KS; southern MI, Columbus, OH; Wooster, OH; and Portageville, MO. The NAM populations will be field evaluated in 2-row yield plots using standard procedures and managed to achieve optimal yields. Traits measured on each plot include: seed yield, maturity (number of days from planting to R8), plant height (cm from ground surface to stem tip), lodging (rated from 1.0 = erect to 5.0 = prostrate), 100-seed weight (gram weight of a representative sample of 100 seeds at 13% seed moisture), and seed protein/oil (gram weight of protein and oil per kg of seed at 13% seed moisture). Seed protein and oil content will be determined by near infrared spectroscopy of a seed sample from each individual plot. The analysis is non-destructive, so additional compositional tests can be conducted using the same seed sample if there is future interest. Breeding values for yield and other traits will be calculated for each of the 5,600 lines. As part of another project, the NAM populations will be mapped with 1536 SNPs and the traits will be mapped as QTL. This information as well as the NAM populations will be made publicly available.