Soymap II

Soybean (Glycine max) is an important part of the US fuel and feed economy. However, genetic improvement of soybean is beset by a lack of genetic diversity leaving soybean open to threats of pests, pathogens, and abiotic stresses. Previous work has shown that the genetic base of germplasm used for soybean improvement is incredibly narrow - narrower than the genetic diversity between two maize inbreds! We propose to develop a set of tools that will allow investigators to leverage the soybean genome sequence to exploit genetic diversity in the genus Glycine and to begin to understand the nature of species/genome diversification in the genus. Important in this process is an understanding of the cycle of polyploidization followed by diploidization found in this set of species. The following specific objectives will allow us to begin to answer these questions:

1. Overlay diversity maps onto the soybean genome sequence using genomic clones from a set of phylogenetically informative Glycine species
2. Explore genome evolution in the genus Glycine at the chromosomal/sequence level to understand the polyploidy/diploidization cycle
3. Sequence targeted orthologous regions across the Glycine species in order to understand levels of linkage disequilibrium and genetic diversity that can be exploited for genetics and breeding.

The broader impacts of this research will be an infrastructure that will be generally applicable by the broader legume community to exploit diversity and understand genome evolution in this economically important genus. 

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0822258-DFBI