Location: Soybean/maize Germplasm, Pathology, and Genetics Research
2023 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Facilitated public, industry, domestic and international research with the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection by distributing 19,163 seed packets for 11,679 unique accessions to fulfill 434 requests. Seed requestors are diverse in research goals and include applied plant breeding and screening for disease and pest resistance as well as basic research including genome sequencing, genetic mapping, and taxonomy studies. Within the past year, the ARS researchers in Urbana, Illinois, and the USDA Soybean Germplasm collection have been acknowledged in 216 journal articles. Specific outcomes include further dissection of resistance to soybean mosaic virus, Phomopsis seed decay, soybean rust, and soybean cyst nematode, as well as relating genomic regions to environmental adaptation of Chinese “land race” accessions and modern accessions. These examples of applied and basic research will lead to improved breeding outcomes against disease resistance and will lead to the genetic dissection of major climate adaption genes which will be crucial to the informed use of the more than 20,000 accessions available in the collection.
Review Publications
Zhang, Y., Blahut-Beatty, L., Zheng, S., Clough, S.J., Simmonds, D.H. 2022. The role of a soybean 14-3-3 gene (Glyma05g29080) on white mold resistance and nodulation investigations using CRISPR-Cas9 editing and RNA silencing. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. 36(3):159-164. https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-07-22-0157-R.
Wei, W., Wu, X., Blahut-Beatty, L., Simmonds, D.H., Clough, S.J. 2022. Transcriptome profiling reveals molecular players in early soybean - Sclerotinia sclerotiorum interaction. Phytopathology. 112(8):1739-1752. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-08-21-0329-R.
Wei, W., Wu, X., Garcia, A., McCoppin, N.K., Gomes Viana, J.P., Murad, P.S., Walker, D.R., Hartman, G.L., Domier, L.L., Hudson, M.E., Clough, S.J. 2022. An NBS-LRR protein in the Rpp1 locus negates the dominance of Rpp1-mediated resistance against Phakopsora pachyrhizi in soybean. The Plant Journal. 113(5):915-933. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.16038.
