Impact of Genomic Research on Soybean Breeding

Abstract

Soybean ( Glycine max L. Merrill) is the leading oilseed crop in the world and a primary source of vegetable oil for human consumption and protein meal for animal feed. The USA is the world’ s largest soybean producer followed closely by Brazil and Argentina. Soybean breeding has been successful in developing soybean varieties with high yield, enhanced seed composition, and disease and pest resistance using conventional breeding approaches. The main challenge faced by soybean researchers has been continuously increasing genetic gain, yet increases in genetic gain have been observed over the past 80 years. Genomic technologies and DNA markers have been successfully developed and utilized in soybean over the past two decades to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL)/genes for traits of economic importance. These technologies have subsequently been utilized to introgress and select for these traits, enabling breeders to accelerate the breeding cycle and develop productive soybean cultivars. In this chapter, first we briefly review DNA marker technologies and how they have been used to characterize soybean germplasm. Then, we present examples of how genomic tools have been used for QTL discovery for traits of importance and conducting molecular breeding. To conclude, we provide our perspectives on the future of soybean breeding using DNA markers and next-generation sequencing.