Research Scholar
Futi Xie, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science
Steve St. Martin, Faculty advisor
Biography
Dr. Futi Xie comes from Shenyang Agricultural University, China. In 1993 he got his PhD degree. He has been studying soybean for 22 years, especially on plant-type, yield and seed quality improvements, released 5 varieties, and published more than 60 papers. Since 1998 he began to do genetic gain research with Dr. Steven K. St. Martin. As a visiting scientist he joined the soybean breeding program of OSU in 1998 and 2007.
About the Research
Future yield gains may depend on an understanding of the past changes made to soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr] by breeding. This study's objective was to use experiments in Ohio and Liaoning province to compare a set of older cultivars from Liaoning province with their modern counterparts derived from breeding programs in Liaoning and Ohio. Tested in Ohio, Ohio cultivars exceeded the older cultivars in yield by 78%, and modern Liaoning cultivars exceeded their older counterparts by 22%. In Liaoning, both groups of modern cultivars exceeded the mean yield of older cultivars by about 50%. The Liaoning environment produced greater mean height, and displayed more lodging. The worst lodging scores belonged to the older cultivars. Ohio cultivars were lower in protein but higher in oil than the other two groups. Both Chinese and USA breeders have successfully selected for improved yield, shorter plants, shorter internode length, greater lodging resistance, higher percentage of yield produced on main stem, and higher ratio of seed yield/stem. Selection for soy food use in China resulted in large seed size and high protein, but those traits have been largely neglected in the USA. The results suggest mutual benefits from germplasm exchange.
