Research

Drastic reductions in genotyping cost alongside increasing costs of field trials and phenotyping have led many plant breeders towards the prediction of complex trait values (e.g., yield) using genome-wide marker information. While this technology is fully implemented and streamlined within large multi-national seed companies, adoption has been relatively slow in public programs and small-to-medium sized companies. We are developing tools and researching novel methods to make the adoption of genomic selection easier and more useful so that all programs can realize the increases in genetic gain genomic selection may allow. Much of this work is currently funded by the North Central Soybean Research Program through a project known as SOYGEN (Science Optimized Yield Gains across ENvironments).  

Unmanned aerial vehicles and advanced imagery analysis have made it possible to phenotype field trials much more quickly than using manual measurements. We have used these technologies to phenotype many thousands of field plots for resistance to iron deficiency chlorosis, date of maturity, and canopy coverage. We are working towards improving these methods for easier practical application and using data collected from UAVs to learn more about the genetics underlying plant development, especially when encountering stress episodes. 

Our program makes breeding crosses, advances generations, and conducts routine field testing to create and identify new soybean cultivars. Most cultivars released from the program have been developed for a specialty trait such as high oleic soybeans and food-type soybeans (natto, soymilk, tofu, black soybeans, high protein). We have also released cultivars with aphid resistance, and are working on the high oil trait to develop germplasm for the rapidly accelerating renewable diesel industry.  In addition to creating for industry, we work on development of cultivars and populations for research purposes, such as near-isogenic lines and mapping populations.

We work with researchers in fields such as plant pathology, entomology, agronomy, and genomics to discover genes and/or introduce newly discovered favorable alleles or biotech events into elite adapted germplasm.