Research HighlightsA Breeder’s Work is Never Done: Improving Soybeans for Farmer Productivity, Profitability
In this article, you’ll find details on:
- Kansas scientists are continuously working to improve soybean germplasm and varieties for farmers and for other breeders
- Recent project results include new soybean lines with nodulating and non-nodulating traits
- Other research is developing improved drought and heat tolerance in soybean varieties and improved methods to predict variety performance
By Carol Brown
When one thinks about how many people are behind a bag or pro box of soybean seeds, there can be quite a list. Kansas State University agronomy professor William Schapaugh is on several of those lists. He has been instrumental in soybean breeding for years, contributing to soybean variety development that helps farmers improve their productivity.
He and his team of scientists have a continuous succession of soybeans in various stages of development. They focus on particular traits in soybean germplasm to develop varieties with attributes such as higher yields, improved protein, high oleic oil content, as well as disease resistance, and abiotic, or physical, plant stressors.
“Every summer, we start the cycle, creating new populations, and then advance the material along in subsequent years,” Schapaugh explains. “It takes about seven or eight years from the beginning of the process to the end. Each year is the first year to develop new populations and the last year of the evaluation process for others. Our breeding pipeline is full.”
Most recently, they have released several conventional varieties for farmers to use, but the majority of releases end up in other public and private licensed breeding programs, so other breeders can use them to develop new varieties.
Recent work supported with checkoff funding from the Kansas Soybean Commission, as well as the United Soybean Board and USDA-NIFA, includes developing varieties and germplasm to improve tolerance of drought and heat. Since 2020, his team has collected data for abiotic stress tolerance on more than 300 genotypes. They are working with Henry Nguyen at the University of Missouri to incorporate genes impacting flood and drought tolerance into adapted soybean varieties.
Other the last several years, a major emphasis of the research project has been coordinating with Aaron Lorenz at the University of Minnesota and other soybean breeders in the North Central region to use genomic selection, high throughput phenotyping and environmental characterization to better predict variety performance.
Other research components include population screening for soybean cyst nematode resistance, incorporating high oleic and/or low linoleic acid traits into elite germplasm and increased genetic diversity of germplasm.
Significant Developments for Breeders
A recent significant accomplishment is the development of non-nodulating and nodulating traits in elite soybean lines from the cultivar KS3120NSGT.
“Developing a non-nodulating soybean line is important as the germplasm that is currently available to breeders and researchers was developed over 50 years ago,” Schapaugh comments. “The available non-nodulating germplasm isn’t a good standard anymore to use in studies for biological nitrogen fixation, soil fertility and nutrient cycling and other research.”
The nodulating and non-nodulating new lines align with today’s soybeans for yield, seed protein and oil content, as well as agronomic traits such as plant height and lodging resistance.
The non-nodulating soybean plants are used as the check, or control, plant in research studies. Nodules on the soybean roots are important for biological nitrogen fixation, which is crucial in plant growth. The nodules are where the Rhizobium bacteria converts atmospheric nitrogen into a form the plant can use.
“We recently released the first set of material,” he says. “We have been able to accomplish this work through collaborations with Larry Purcell at the University of Arkansas, Zenglu Li at the University of Georgia, and Jeff Ray, a retired USDA scientist from Mississippi.”
A Collaborative Effort
As Schapaugh indicates, soybean breeding is collaborative work. Breeders across the country cooperate with each other to build upon one another’s findings and developments, which ultimately makes a better soybean for the farmer.
“We do a tremendous amount of cooperative work in the public sector,” he says. “For example, testing programs have been established to evaluate experimental varieties over a range of environmental conditions. This program also facilitates germplasm exchange where we can obtain germplasm from other universities to use in our breeding program, and we reciprocate by providing other breeders with our varieties for use in their programs. Nearly every major project we undertake involves collaboration with researchers and breeders across the country.”
This collaboration is crucial in order for researchers and breeders to develop soybean varieties with traits that can improve farmer productivity and profitability. Schapaugh, his team, and his collaborators continually conduct their research on behalf of the farmer.
Additional Resources:
Breeding Research Lays Foundation to Investigate Links Between Fixing Nitrogen and Protein Concentration – SRIN article
Kansas Researchers Breed Better Soybeans at the Genetic Level – SRIN article
Meet the Principal Investigator: William Schapaugh
Published: Feb 17, 2025
The materials on SRIN were funded with checkoff dollars from United Soybean Board and the North Central Soybean Research Program. To find checkoff funded research related to this research highlight or to see other checkoff research projects, please visit the National Soybean Checkoff Research Database.
