Genomics-Based Improvement of Adapted Soybean Germplasm and Establishment of a Molecular Screening System for Soybean Pathogens

Legumes have a range of positive impacts on agro-ecosystems and are a key element for a responsible and sustainable use of agricultural resources. As worldwide most important legume soybeans play a decisive role. However, soybean cultivation in Germany is limited due to unfavorable climatic conditions.

The aim of this project is to improve the prerequisites for an extension of soybean cultivation in Germany. To attain this, the following objectives are pursued in work packages:
The development of a genomics based breeding program, the diversification of breeding populations by allele-mining of genetic resources, the establishment of a fast and sensitive assay method to detect the presence of pathogens on soybeans, as well as the phenotypic and genotypic detection of the response of soybean lines to chilling stress during flowering.