Soybean Disease Resistance From Distant Cousin

1/11/2008

Kurt LawtonIf an Australian cousin to the soybean cooperates when crossed, the disease and insect resistant benefits could be huge. University of Illinois scientists are overcoming biological barriers to cross soybeans and Glycine tomentella, a distant cousin of soybeans, to produce fertile seeds that hold significant promise for increasing genetic diversity. "Tomentella is a small, viney, perennial that originated from the Brampton Island off Queensland, Australia. It is a distant cousin to the soybean and has useful traits such as resistant to soybean rust, soybean cyst nematodes, soybean aphids, and even viruses like bean pod mottle," said Ram Singh, University of Illinois plant cytogeneticist. Singh's research involves taking pollen from G. tomentella and moving it to the flower of soybean. Creating a fertile plant is a long process. When pollination was successful, pod abortion ensued. To overcome pod abortion, the immature seeds were rescued from aborting pods and cultured in artificial media to nurture the developing embryos and keep them alive. "It has taken anywhere from six months to a year for one seed to germinate. Healthy, fertile, hybridized germplasm could be available to the soybean industry by 2010," said Singh. According to Randall Nelson, USDA soybean geneticist and manger of the National Soybean Germplasm Collection, this hybridization could generate important traits including drought tolerance, yield genes, seed composition genes, and other disease and pest resistance traits. "No doubt, the exotic soybean germplasm coming from successful hybridization will enhance the genetic diversity of commercial soybean cultivars," he said. This research and continued research efforts are supported by the USDA and the Illinois Soybean Association.