Purdue announces inaugural ISA Endowed Chair in Soybean Improvement

Purdue announces inaugural ISA Endowed Chair in Soybean Improvement

Jianxin Ma, professor of agronomy at Purdue University holds the leaves of a soybean plant. Behind Ma, from left are students Weidong Wang, Chance Clark, and Dominic Provancal. Ma is working to improve soybean plants as part of Purdue’s Next Moves plant sciences initiative. (Photo by Tom Campbell)

Purdue Agronomy Professor Jianxin Ma has been named the first Indiana Soybean Alliance Endowed Chair in Soybean Improvement. The Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) established this chair to advance critical soybean research that would be both productive and progressive. Dr. Ma’s work will include research will include research in such areas as the creation of the genome-editing pipeline and the utilization of phenotyping.

The Purdue University Board of Trustees ratified Ma’s appointment at its February meeting on Feb. 3.

“As a leader in the field of soybean genomics, Dr. Ma is at the cutting edge of expanding the value of Indiana soybeans while producing them with environmentally sustainable practices,” said ISA CEO Courtney Kingery. “ISA established this endowed chair for soybean research because our mission is to bring value to Indiana farmers in a way that sustainably improves their yields and profitability. Dr. Ma’s work is critical to our goals of higher yields and responsible farming techniques.”

Kingery added that Indiana farmers have benefited from having a world-leading agricultural research institution like Purdue University within the state. Purdue’s reputation brings the top minds and researchers from around the world to work in Indiana. She said ISA created the Chair in Soybean Improvement to advance critical research.

“Dr. Ma is undoubtedly one of the best soybean geneticists in the country and has received international recognition for his innovative research,” said Bernie Engel, Purdue Agriculture’s senior associate dean for research and graduate education. “Among his many accomplishments are dissecting the genetic network underlying soybean agronomic traits and disease resistance and harnessing untapped genetic diversity from wild soybeans and relatives. He is extremely passionate about his work with Indiana soybean farmers.”

Denise Scarborough, a farmer from Lacrosse, Ind., and the chair of the ISA’s Sustainability and Value Creation Committee, addressed the ISA Board of Directors’ commitment to the position.

“We believe that soybeans are a versatile crop that has proved its sustainability over the years. We are very optimistic with the future options of soybean uses,” said Scarborough. “ISA is committed to bringing value back to Hoosier farmers by investing in research that will lead to a more efficient crop with new uses across the state for decades to come. Investing in this chair strengthens the alignment between Purdue University and our organization. We are excited to see how Dr. Ma, and the researchers who follow him, impact Indiana agriculture.”

Ma, who is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been honored by the Crop Science Society of America, spoke about how humbled he is by the ISA’s and Purdue’s belief and confidence in him and his research team’s work.

“I am deeply honored to have been selected for this endowed chair appointment, which represents a significant investment from all soybean farmers in Indiana. Over the years, our soybean genetics research has been generously funded by (ISA). This strong support will further enhance our capability to acquire new knowledge and translate it into innovative approaches and tools for soybean improvement that will increase farm profitability in Indiana and across the nation.”

ISA CEO Courtney Kingery, left, poses with new ISA Endowed Chair in Soybean Improvement Dr. Jianxin Ma along with ISA directors Denise Scarborough, LaCrosse, Ind., and Allen Buchanan, Fowler, Ind.

Who is Dr. Ma?

Ma, who has been a Purdue faculty since 2006 and serves on the editorial boards of seven scientific journals. He has authored 103 peer-reviewed publications in the field of plant genetics and genomics. Much of Ma’s research focuses on characterizing the genomics of globally important crops.

He is internationally renowned for his work on the soybean genome and his prominent role in decoding the genomic structure of rice, cacao and other plants. Ma is the primary inventor on three patents and patent applications and has received international accolades for his research, most recently for his work in identifying novel genes for broad spectrum resistance to root and stem rot in soybean plants.

Ma said genomics research not only advances fundamental understanding of genome structure and evolution, but also provides powerful tools for dissecting important traits in plants and for translating acquired new knowledge into solutions for precision crop enhancement.

Ma was also recognized last year by the Soybean Genomics Executive Committee (SoyGEC) with the MidCareer Achievement Award in Soybean Genetics and Genomics during the Soy2022 conference.

Ma said it is hard for him to claim the celebration of his work without acknowledging the colleagues and students who’ve played crucial roles in every step of the way. “Any honor I receive certainly also belongs to my former and current lab members and the collaborators I have had the good fortune to work with over the years,” he said.

Ma said he has built the success of his research program based on translating basic discoveries in the lab to reallife changes in the work taking place in the fields, working directly with farmers to address their needs. Ma said he looks forward to applying his translational genetics and genomics work with CRISPR-based gene-editing and other technologies to precision breeding of new cultivars with increased grain yield, improved nutritional values and enhanced resilience to climate change.

Following genetic traits

Ma follows genetic traits to breed more resilient plants. A newly identified gene may boost soybeans’ natural resistance to a devastating disease – Phytophthora. He is trying to identify an individual gene responsible for Phytophthora resistance, allowing plant breeders to detect which plants carry the trait.

Phytophthora is a mold responsible for root and stem rot that can ravage soybean fields and costs farmers annually more than $1 billion worldwide. Like fungi and other pathogens, the soil-borne mold has evolved through time, and the resistance of existing soybean lines is waning, said Ma who also is a part of Purdue Next Moves in plant sciences and a member of Purdue’s Center for Plant Biology.

“This pathogen is difficult to manage using fungicides, which also are costly and have potential environmental impact,” he said. “Genetic resistance is the best way to prevent it.”

Ma added, “Only a tiny DNA sample is needed for a test with a molecular marker, so even seeds can be easily checked for this disease resistance. We don’t have to wait for a plant to grow to see if it carries this trait or waste resources breeding plants without it. Precision breeding accelerates the speed at which a new, robust cultivar can be put in the hands of farmers.”

He has identified a promising gene. Referred to as Rps11, this gene confers broad-spectrum resistance to the pathogen. Ma’s team identified and cloned the gene, a critical step to creating molecular markers that precisely detect the presence of the gene. “In addition to Rps11, the collaboration has resulted in identification of three more genes, which also confer excellent resistance to the pathogen, that we hope to also be able to clone,” he said.

The Rps11 gene is found in a complex region of the genome. This region carries a dozen genes that are structurally similar to, but functionally distinct from Rps11, and the number of such genes in the region varies among plant varieties from five to 23, making it difficult to find Rps11.

“If we had only relied on publicly available soybean reference genomes, we would not have captured Rps11,” Ma said. “The region is present in those genomes, but the counterpart of the gene that gives resistance is not there. Thus, we had to decode the entire region in the Rps11 donor line.”

Sitting with ISA CEO Courtney Kingery and ISA Sustainability and Value Creation Committee Chair Denise Scarborough, a farmer from LaCrosse, Ind., Dr. Jianxin Ma answers questions from the audience.

ISA Director and Chair of the Sustainability and Value Creation Committee Denise Scarborough, left, and ISA CEO Courtney Kingery give an award to Dr. Jianxin Ma that recognizes him at the new ISA Endowed Chair in Soybean Improvement.

Guided by the entire sequence from the region, the team was able to design a set of DNA markers for highthroughput genotyping of more than 17,000 individual plants in a matter of a few months to eventually pinpoint the gene, he said.

The research team hopes to be able to do the same for the other three genes they identified, he said.

“If plants can be bred with multiple genes that confer disease resistance, they would have layers of protection,” Ma said. “We also plan to explore how structural variation of this genomic region gave rise to the resistance, to understand and possibly improve disease resistance in other ways. We want to provide as many tools as we can for sustainable agriculture.”

Interim Purdue Ag Dean Ken Foster presents ISA CEO Courtney Kingery with an award honoring the state soybean checkoff’s investment in Purdue research.