Pioneer Hi-Bred is building a new foundation for their soybean varieties based on yield. The DuPont business recently introduced Accelerated Yield Technology (AYT).
Soybean varieties with AYT technology are expected to yield up to 12 percent more than today’s top-yielding soybean varieties. “This provides farmers with access to top genetics that also offer strong yields,” said John Soper, Pioneer soybean research director.
Company scientists have discovered about 100 gene markers that indicate high yield potential in Pioneer varieties. The presence of one or more of these gene markers in a chromosome indicates the presence of a gene that affects yield potential. Soybean breeders can use that information to develop higher yielding varieties. Varieties with one or more of the high yield genes will be labeled as AYT – Accelerated Yield Technology. Beginning in 2008, Pioneer plans to release up to five AYT varieties, pending area-wide research advancement trial results.
How it works: Pioneer has kept a complete collection of their 
soybean varieties from the 1950s until today. Molecular biologists looked at all of the varieties and breeding lines, and they found some interesting differences. Using modern molecular breeding techniques, scientists found about 100 genes – out of 30,000 to 40,000 genes in the soybean plant – that were in very low frequency in the 1950s and today are found very frequently.
“We have no idea what these genes do,” said Soper. “They are not associated with any known resistance to disease or pests. We do know that breeders have focused on one trait more than any other in the past 50 years. That’s increasing yield.”
Pioneer scientists began testing the genes – identified by gene markers – one-by-one to see if they had a yield impact. “We found a large number of them have yield impact and they are averaging about 1 bushel for each of those genes,” said Soper.
This Year
Pioneer raised AYT versions of some of their most popular varieties in farm trials in 2007 across the Soybean Belt. In other words, they looked at their existing varieties and found sub-lines that were higher yielding than the original elite varieties on the market today. The sub-lines naturally carry at least one of the AYT genes. Breeding with another sub-line with a different AYT gene should result in a third line with greater yield potential than either sub-line would have on its own.
Pioneer grew field trials of the AYT sub-line varieties they plan to commercialize next year. “Typically they would be raised on 50-100 farms across the United States in large field plots,” said Soper. “They would be rated the same way we would test all the other varieties that we introduce into the market.” Pioneer will compile yield data to make final commercialization decisions by November. “We are confident that a number of the AYT brands will make it to commercial status,” Soper said. “There are other lines too that are very good that didn’t come from AYT. They will compete head to head in yield trials. We’ll release to the customers the best lines for the market.”
Next Year
If a farmer raised an elite Pioneer variety that averaged 43-44 bushels/acre, the AYT version of that same variety could average as high as five bushels/acre more – or about 48-49 bushels/acre. Traditional breed practices are used to produce the AYT lines. It’s not a biotechnology trait. Pioneer will not charge specifically for AYT lines. “The product will be priced, based on its performance,” said Soper. “We hope AYT products are some of the best, so they end up in the top-pricing tier. They will be priced based on their performance and their value to the producer.”
2010
Soper thinks the true worth of AYT will become apparent when the technology is applied to developmental lines. “We’re going to move AYT into the core of the breeding program,” said Soper. “Five years out, probably all of our varieties will have gone through marker selection for yield. All of our varieties will have been selected back early in their development for the yield gene.
“We’ll probably raise the performance level of all our experimental lines by two or three bushels/acre.” In the past, breeders grew out soybean cultivars to find the high yielding varieties. “We used the combine, like everyone else, to see yield,” said Soper. Now, breeders use high tech microscopes, chemical processes and molecular breeding technology to build conventional soybeans fast that offer high yield genetics. “We have a lot of different potential uses for Accelerated Yield Technology – now that we understand the genetics of yield,” Soper said – Agnews.
