Yield Potential and Waterlogging Tolerance of Selected Near-Isogenic Lines and Recombinant Inbred Lines from Two Southern Soybean Populations

Abstract

A quantitative trait locus (QTL) for waterlogging tolerance has been identified in a northern cultivar Archer. In the current study, Archer was crossed with two southern elite soybean cultivars A5403 and P9641 to investigate the efficiency of marker-assisted selection and phenotypic selection for waterlogging tolerance and to assess the value of waterlogging tolerance for soybean yield improvement. Near-isogenic lines (NILs) were created using the linked simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker Sat_064 for the waterlogging tolerance QTL from each of the F6-derived populations. Concurrently, 103 and 67 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) were also generated from Archer × A5403 and Archer × P9641, respectively. Significant variations in seed yield or plant injury were observed among the NILs and RILs under waterlogging stress. The 29 most tolerant and 29 most sensitive NILs and RILs were selected on the basis of waterlogging injury ratings and evaluated under irrigated and waterlogged conditions in Arkansas and Missouri in 2002 and 2003. The most tolerant lines produced an average of 60.9% of their irrigated yield, as compared with only 32.6% and 53.9% by the most sensitive lines and the commercial checks, respectively. Waterlogging injury scores for the tolerant lines, checks, and sensitive lines were 3.6,4.3, and 6.6, respectively, following the same trend as their yield reductions. A genotype-by-environment interaction (G × E) analysis showed that some of the selected lines were highly stable in response to waterlogging stress across environments. Breeding selection for the waterlogging tolerance can be performed in the field based on seed yield and plant injury scores.