Executive Summary

Soy is a billion-dollar industry; it is widely utilized in foods for human consumption, agricultural animal feed, and soybean oil, the second most consumed oil in the world. The aphid Aphis glycines Matsumura, first discovered in North American in 2000, devastates soy crops. As this aphid is an invasive species, current soybean varieties do not have good resistance to it and new resistant varieties are needed to confer aphid resistance to the plant.

Description of Technology

At Michigan State University, novel aphid resistance genes have been identified and mapped in soy. rag1b, rag3, rag4, and Rag6 have been validated to confer aphid resistance and have been finely mapped in the soy genome.  These resistance genes have repeatedly topped the trials in multi-site and multi-year aphid resistance testing, and are durable and effective against known aphid biotypes. The resistance genes have been introgressed into agronomically acceptable breeding lines.  Molecular markers are available to speed breeding efforts.

Key Benefits

• Durable: resistance has held up over multiple years of testing
• Broad spectrum: provides resistance to known aphid biotypes in the US.

Applications

• Aphid Resistance: useful as a natural means to protect soybeans from aphid attacks.

Patent Status: 

Patent application published, no. US 20140196167 A1

Licensing Rights Available

Licensed. Exclusive licensing rights active.

Inventors: Dechun Wang, Clarice Mensah, Carmille Bales, Zhongnan Zhang, Cuihua Gu, Christina DiFonzo, Guorong Zhang, Zhenyu Yang, Menghan Liu

Tech ID: TEC2014-0063