Ecological traits performances and their breeding potential for Northeast China's soybean germplasm population grown in Tieling area,Liaoning province

To further discover elite germplasm resources and effective utilization of Northeast China's soybean germplasm resources, 361 available soybean landrace varieties and breeding varieties(or lines) from breeding agencies in Northeast China were planted to observe the phenotype variations in Tieling city in 2012-2014 growing seasons.The variances of 13 phenotypic traits belonging to 4 classes of this population were analyzed to investigate the breeding potential through a blocking in replicated designs experiment using frequency distribution statistics method.The following results were obtained:(1) In Tieling area, the average value of the whole growth period of the population was 104 d(range from 83.6 d to 136 d), protein content was 40.9%(37.7% to 45.9%), oil content was 22.4%(18.9% to 23.8%), protein+oil content was 63.3%(60.4% to 66.5%), the 100-seed weight was 18.8 g(11.0 g to 34.7 g), plant height was 72.0 cm(42.4 to 121 cm), node number in main stem was 17.1(11.5 to 23.1), the number of branch was 1.59(0.27 to 5.09), lodging level was 1.8(0.88 to 4).(2) The local maturity group was MGⅡand MGⅢ, plants belonging these two groups showed similar average values of main traits as above.However, the plants from other maturity groups and displayed varied average values.The quality traits of this population were slightly better than local varieties.(3) Each ecological trait genetic progress had a certain improvement potential, and some excellent germplasm resources selected could be used for plant breeders in the improvement of the ecological and quality traits.(4) The tracing of the origin and contribution rate of the soybean ancestors in region 4 showed that the average number of ancestral parents cultivated/collected in this region was 7.8, of which the top 20 ancestral parents contributed 70.6% to the local cultivars, while the top 10 ancestral parents to 61.1%.