Utilising soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] wild and untapped genetic resources through pre‐breeding: Challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Soybean is an economically important oilseed crop with diverse uses as food, feed, biofuel and so forth. Although the demand for soybean is growing rapidly worldwide, the narrow genetic base of released cultivars due to meagre utilisation of available wild and untapped genetic resources is a major factor contributing to stagnant production and productivity levels of soybean. Considering the continuously increasing global population, changing dietary habits, ongoing climatic fluctuations, rapidly evolving biotic stresses and shrinking land and water resources, utilisation of novel and diverse sources of variation is required for the genetic enhancement of soybean. To widen the genetic base of commercial soybean cultivars and to improve the genetic gain of the crop focused and systematic pre‐breeding efforts can play a game‐changing role by supplying novel genes in crop improvement programs. This article discusses the rationale of tapping wild and untapped genetic resources of soybean, gene pools, soybean genetic resources conserved ex‐situ and its utilisation status, genetic base of commercial soybean cultivars, identified novel genes and genomic regions in wild genetic resources, pre‐breeding efforts in India and strategies for incorporating desirable traits in the elite cultivated gene pool for fulfilling the requirements of farmers and other end‐users.