Physiological and Molecular Approaches to Improve Drought Resistance in Soybean

Drought stress is a major constraint to the production and yield stability of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]. For developing high yielding varieties under drought conditions, the most widely employed criterion has traditionally been direct selection for yield stability over multiple locations. However, this approach is time consuming and labor intensive, because yield is a highly quantitative trait with low heritability, and influenced by differences arising from soil heterogeneity and environmental factors. The alternative strategy of indirect selection using secondary traits has succeeded only in a few crops, due to problems with repeatability and lack of phenotyping strategies, especially for root-related…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Agriculture
• UO
  University of Missouri
• CS
  Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service
• MS
  Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council