ARS Releases New Soybean Disease Defenses
August 27, 1999
A new soybean variety and a germ plasm line that fight some major crop diseases have been released by USDA's Agricultural Research Service. The new variety has high seed yield and good plant height in early season plantings, an environment that usually suppresses plant growth.
The variety is called Bolivar and is adapted to the clay soils of the lower Mississippi River valley and east Mississippi. It also is tolerant to phytophthora rot and resistant to stem canker and soybean cyst nematode race 3. It has moderate resistance to races 2 and 5. Phytophthora rot is a major soybean disease; millions of bushels are lost each year from the disease.
Soybean cyst nematodes are worm-like pests that eat soybean roots, causing more losses than all other soybean pathogens combined. The nematodes destroyed nearly 16.4 million bushels last year.
Bolivar was developed by Jeffrey M. Tyler of the aRS Crop Genetics and Production Research Unit in Stoneville, MS, in cooperation with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Mississippi State.