Developing soybeans for a changing climate: Assessing lipid traits affecting drought tolerance in Ontario-adapted commercial soybean varieties

Lead Applicant: Yang Xu

Research Priority: Competitive Production Systems 

Program Type: Tier 1

Funding Cycle: 2023/2024

Research Centre: NA

Research Summary: Soybean is the largest cash crop grown in Ontario, providing oils and proteins for human and livestock consumption. However, soybean production is severely threatened by environmental stresses, such as drought, which along with heat, is now an annual event in Ontario as consequences of climate change. Indeed, soybeans are considered one of the most sensitive crops to drought, which can reduce soybean yield by ~40%. Lipids are a diverse group of metabolites (an intermediate or end product of metabolism) in plants and play essential biological roles in plant development and resilience to environmental stresses. This research proposes to assess agronomic performance, lipid profiling and gene expression of 15 Ontario-adapted commercial soybean varieties under drought stress with the aim to identify tolerant soybean cultivars and novel lipid phenotyping markers and gene markers associated with soybean drought tolerance. The generated knowledge will provide novel genomic toolkits and direct future breeding strategies to improve stress tolerance in soybeans.