Yudong Fang, Liwei Wang, Enoch Sapey, Shuai Fu, Tingting Wu, Haiyan Zeng, Xuegang Sun, Shuqing Qian, Mohammad Abdul Awal Khan, Shan Yuan, Cunxiang Wu, Wensheng Hou, Shi Sun, Tianfu Han

　　Frontiers in Plant Science, IF: 5.753

　　https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.717077

　　Abstract

　　Speed breeding by artificial control of photothermal conditions facilitates generation advancement but was limited in scale and cost. In this study, we demonstrated a cost-saving off-site summer nursery pattern, taking full advantage of shorter daylength and higher temperature with lower latitude compared to the origin of the soybean cultivars used in the study. This substantially reduced the generation cycles under totally natural conditions. Using this approach, two generations of soybean cultivars from Northeastern Spring Planting Region (NE) and Yellow-Huai-Hai Valleys Summer Planting Region (YHH) were successfully obtained in Beijing and Hainan, respectively, compared to one generation in origin. Fresh-seeding method was also used to further shorten the generation duration by 7–10 days, thereby allowing at least four generations per year. Using DNA markers to define haplotypes of maturity genes E1–E4, we proposed a model to predict the optimum adaptation region of the advanced generation lines. Taken together, we present a speed-breeding methodology combining off-site nursery, fresh-seeding method, and marker-assisted selection, aimed at accelerating soybean improvement.