Ana Pospišil

Identification of mega-environments in Europe and effect of allelic variation at maturity E loci on adaptation of European soybean

Soybean cultivation holds great potential for a sustainable agriculture in Europe, but adaptation remains a central issue. In this large mega-environment (MEV) study, 75 European cultivars from five early maturity groups (MGs 000-II) were evaluated for maturity-related traits at 22 locations in 10 countries across Europe. Clustering of the locations based on phenotypic similarity revealed six MEVs in latitudinal direction and suggested several more. Analysis of maturity identified several groups of cultivars with phenotypic similarity that are optimally adapted to the different growing regions in Europe. We identified several haplotypes for the allelic variants at the E1, E2, E3 and E4 genes, with each E haplotype comprising cultivars from different MGs. Cultivars with the same E haplotype can exhibit different flowering and maturity characteristics, suggesting that the genetic control of these traits is more complex and that adaptation involves additional genetic pathways, for example temperature requirement. Taken together, our study allowed the first unified assessment of soybean-growing regions in Europe and illustrates the strong effect of photoperiod on soybean adaptation and MEV classification, as well as the effects of the E maturity loci for soybean adaptation in Europe.

Influence of sowing density on agronomic traits of lupins (Lupinus spp.).

The aim of the research conducted on eutric brown soil on the experimental facility of Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb in 2012 and 2013, was to determine the optimal sowing density for two cultivars of white lupin (Teodora and Energy) and a cultivar of narrow-leafed lupin (Arabella). The study included three sowing densities: 60, 75 and 90 germinated seeds/m2. The cultivars of white lupin achieved significantly higher seed yield, higher 1000 seed weight, higher weight of seeds per plant and higher protein content in the seed, compared to the cultivar of narrow-leafed lupin. The sowing density had no effect on seed yield, but the increase in sowing density above 60 germinated seeds/m2 significantly reduced the number of pods, the number of seeds and seed weight per plant.