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Multi-Year Evaluation of Commercial Soybean Cultivars for Resistance to Phytophthora sojae

Phytophthora sojae causes damping-off, root rot, and stem rot of soybean, particularly in poorly drained soils. Soybean cultivar resistance is one of the primary methods to control this disease, with Rps1c, Rps1k, and Rps1a being the most commonly used genes. The Varietal Information Program for Soybeans (VIPS) at the University of Illinois evaluates soybean cultivars for resistance to a number of diseases including Phytophthora root rot (PRR). The objectives of this research were to evaluate PRR resistance among commercial cultivars or advanced lines, and to compare these results with the information on PRR resistance provided by the company that entered the cultivar in VIPS. Each year from 2004 to 2008, between 600 and 900 cultivars were evaluated for resistance to either race 17 or 26 of P. sojae using the hypocotyl inoculation method. P. sojae single resistance genes were reported in 1,808 or 51% of the entries based on company information. Of these, the most commonly reported resistance genes were Rps1c (50%), Rps1k (40%), and Rps1a (10%). To a much smaller degree, companies reported using Rps3a (0.3%), Rps1b (0.2%), and Rps7 (0.2%). For the duration of the 5-year testing period, almost half of the cultivars (46%) were entered in VIPS with no reported resistance genes, and only nine out of a total of 3,533 entries (less than 0.3%) reported a stacked combination of resistance genes. Agreement between company-reported genes and any resistance found in the VIPS PRR evaluation was highest for those cultivars claiming to have Rps1c (90%) and Rps1k (83%), followed by Rps1a (70%). On average, 54% of the cultivars submitted to VIPS each year were new, reflecting the rapid development and turnover of soybean cultivars provided by the soybean seed companies.