Common loci underlie field resistance to soybean sudden death syndrome in Forrest, Pyramid, Essex, and Douglas

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] sudden death syndrome (SDS) caused by Fusarium solani f. sp. glycines results in severe yield losses. Resistant cultivars offer the most-effective protection against yield losses but resistant cultivars such as 'Forrest' and 'Pyramid' vary in the nature of their response to SDS. Loci underlying SDS resistance in 'Essex' X Forrest are well defined. Our objectives were to identify and characterize loci and alleles that underlie field resistance to SDS in Pyramid X 'Douglas'. SDS disease incidence and disease severity were determined in replicated field trials in six environments over 4 years. One hundred and twelve polymorphic DNA markers were compared with SDS disease response among 90 recombinant inbred lines from the cross PyramidXDouglas. Two quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for resistance to SDS derived their beneficial alleles from Pyramid, identified on linkage group G by BARC-Satt163 (261-bp allele, P=0.0005, R-2=16.0%) and linkage group N by BARC-Satt080 (230-bp allele, P=0.0009, R-2=15.6%). Beneficial alleles of both QTLs were previously identified in Forrest. A QTL for resistance to SDS on linkage group C2 identified by BARC-Satt307 (292-bp allele, P=0.0008, R-2=13.6%) derived the beneficial allele from Douglas. A beneficial allele of this QTL was previously identified in Essex. Recombinant inbred lines that carry the beneficial alleles for all three QTLs for resistance to SDS were significantly (Pless than or equal to0.05) more resistant than other recombinant inbred lines. Among these recombinant inbred lines resistance to SDS was environmentally stable. Therefore, gene pyramiding will be an effective method for developing cultivars with stable resistance to SDS.