Seed of the experimental lines developed and tested in the soybean nested association study (NAM) are available for distribution to researchers this spring. For the NAM study, we developed 40 populations from mating 40 diverse MG II to IV parents to the hub parent IA3023. If you would like more information about the parents, please go to http://soybase.org/SoyNAM/. From each mating, 140 F5-derived recombinant inbred lines (RILs) were developed and these lines were phenotyped in field tests for agronomic traits, seed composition, and genotyped with genetic markers. The phenotypic and genotype data for these lines have already been posted at the SoyBase website. We strongly advise that you first request seed of the 41 parents of the populations (For the NAM parent seed requests, contact James Specht). Test the parents FIRST for your traits of interest to identify those populations that will likely segregate for your traits BEFORE you request seed of the corresponding NAM RIL populations.

Your NAM RIL seed request must be e-mailed to Iowa State University (ISU), with a cc to Brian Diers and Katy Martin Rainey. ISU will provide you with the MTA form that will need to be executed before we can provide seed to you.

Because the NAM project does not have funding to distribute this seed, you will be billed $1 / RIL seed sample to cover the cost of packaging and distributing this seed. Thus, for a request of 140 RILs, the bill will be $140. In addition, you will be responsible for the paying the shipping costs (you will be requested to provide us with a pre-paid shipping label just before the shipping date). We will provide you with a 50 seed sample of each RIL that you request. Unfortunately, because of IP restrictions, we will not be able to distribute any seed out of the country.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Brian Diers, Katy Martin Rainey and Jim Specht