,A field experiment focused on three legumes (soybeans [Glycine max], mothbeans [Vigna aconitifolia], and tepary bean [Phaseolus acutifolius]) was conducted in El Reno, OK over a two year period (2018, 2019). The split-split plot design for the legumes were subject to various row spacing (38cm and 76cm) and irrigation regimes (irrigated and rainfed). Sampling of the plots took place a total of seven times over the two year period. Each of the samplings included an initial triplicate (averaged) hyperspectral readings using a spectroradiometer (350nm to 2500nm; FieldSpec Pro FR: Malvern Panalytical, Westborough, MA, USA), in-situ measurements (canopy cover [collected with the “Canopeo” app where a ratio of plant to ground pixels were calculated], chlorophyll content [collected with Chlorophyll Content Meter-300, Opti-Sciences, Hudson, NH, USA]), and biomass clipping for various laboratory analytics (dry weight, nitrogen/carbon content, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, in vitro true digestibility). Locations for sampling (n=334) within the 4m x 3m plots were chosen at random.,

,Developing new cultivars with drought resilience is difficult for cotton breeders/geneticists, because there is a lack of knowledge of which traits to target for improvement. Morphological and agronomic data was collected from two cultivars representing different production regions [far west – ‘PhytoGen 72’ (PHY72) and midsouth – ‘Stoneville 474’ (STV474)] of the US. These data were used to evaluate which traits are associated with drought resilience under semi environmental control (greenhouse). The dataset includes twenty eight traits that were evaluated for two irrigation regimes during the six critical reproductive stages of 50 % squaring, 100 % squaring, 50 % flowering, peak bloom and early boll setting, advanced flowering and boll setting, and initial boll cracking. The published article, based on these data, showed that traits such as leaf temperature (peak bloom and early boll setting), chlorophyll fluorescence yield (50 % squaring), number of leaves (peak bloom and early boll setting), flowers (50 % flowering) bolls (peak bloom and early boll setting and initial boll cracking), and plant height (50 % squaring and peak bloom and early boll setting) as single targets or in combination, could be used in selection strategies for breeding and genetically improving cotton for drought resiliency.,

This dataset will contain phenotypic observations of a large number of wheat genotypes evaluated in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico.

,Data and code for "Cover crop inclusion and residue retention improves soybean production and physiology in drought conditions",CONTEXT: Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) planting has increased in central and western North Dakota despite frequent drought occurrences that limit productivity. Soybean plants need high photosynthetic and transpiration rates to be productive, but they also need high water use efficiency when water is limited. Retaining crop residues and including cover crops in crop rotations are management strategies that could improve soybean drought resilience in the northern Great Plains.,OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine how a management practice that included cover crops and residue retention impacts agronomic, ecosystem water and carbon dioxide flux, and canopy-scale physiological attributes of soybeans in the northern Great Plains under drought conditions.,METHODS: We compared two soybean fields over two years with business-as-usual and aspirational management that included residue retention and cover crops during a drought year. This comparison was based on yield, aboveground biomass, Phenocam images, and fluxes from eddy covariance and ancillary measurements. These measurements were used to derive meteorological, physical, and physiological attributes with the ‘big leaf’ framework.,RESULTS: Soybean yields were 29% higher under drought conditions in the field managed in a system that included cover crops and residue retention. This yield increase was caused by extending the maturity phenophase by 5 days, increasing agronomic and intrinsic water use efficiency by 27% and 33%, respectively, increasing water uptake, and increasing the rubisco-limited photosynthetic capacity (Vcmax25) by 42%.,CONCLUSIONS: The inclusion of cover crops and residue retention into a cropping system improved soybean productivity because of differences in water use, phenology timing, and photosynthetic capacity.,IMPLICATIONS: These results suggest that farmers can improve soybean productivity and yield stability by incorporating cover crops and residue retention into their management practices because these practices allow soybean plants to shift to a more aggressive water uptake strategy.,Data Half_Hourly.csv: Half hour data from eddy covariance towers,Management.csv: data about field management,Phenocamdata.csv: The output of 1_phenocam.Rmd code,Predicted_Height_LAI.csv: The output of 3_Inferring_LAI_and_Height.Rmd,Vegetation.csv: biomass and yield data,Code 1_phenocam.rmd: Code to download Phenocam data and identify phenophase transition dates.,2_Daily_CO2_Water_Fluxes.Rmd: Code to analyze daily carbon and water fluxes (Figure 1, 2 3 and Table 2).,3_Inferring_LAI_and_Height.Rmd: Code to calculate the predicted LAI and height for each day. The output is used in the big-leaf framework.,4_Big_Leaf.Rmd: Code for the big-leaf ecophysiology estimates (Figure 4, 5 and 6; Table 3 and 4).,4_Data_Dictionary_Variables: Code to identify the data dictionary variables.,

,The Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) is an online portal for information about agricultural genetic resources that are managed by the Agricultural Research Service of USDA, along with U.S. partnering organizations.,The content includes general information about ARS animal, microbial and plant germplasm collections, most notably the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS). The NPGS curates more than 600,000 active accessions of living plant material at 20 genebank locations around the U.S., and makes small quantities available globally to plant breeders and other professional scientists.,GRIN also documents activities of Crop Germplasm Committees (CGC) that support the NPGS. The CGCs are comprised of public and private sector subject matter experts for a given crop (there are currently 44 CGCs) who voluntarily provide input on technical and operational matters to the NPGS.,The site includes two searchable datasets: the ARS Rhizobium collection and Plant Variety Protection Certificates. The Rhizobium collection is living bacteria that nodulate the roots of leguminous plants symbiotically to provide nitrogen fixation. Samples are available to research scientists globally upon request. The Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Certificates are issued by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) of USDA to provide intellectual property protection to registered new varieties of plants that are propagated by seed or tubers. The GRIN site allows queries of PVPs by certificate number, name of the crop, variety name, or certificate holder, all using data provided by the AMS.,

Background The legume Medicago truncatula has emerged as a model plant for the molecular and genetic dissection of various plant processes involved in rhizobial, mycorrhizal and pathogenic plant-microbe interactions. Aiming to develop essential tools for such genetic approaches, we have established the first genetic map of this species. Two parental homozygous lines were selected from the cultivar Jemalong and from the Algerian natural population (DZA315) on the basis of their molecular and phenotypic polymorphism. Results An F2 segregating population of 124 individuals between these two lines was obtained using an efficient manual crossing technique established for M. truncatula and was used to construct a genetic map. This map spans 1225 cM (average 470 kb/cM) and comprises 289 markers including RAPD, AFLP, known genes and isoenzymes arranged in 8 linkage groups (2n = 16). Markers are uniformly distributed throughout the map and segregation distortion is limited to only 3 linkage groups. By mapping a number of common markers, the eight linkage groups are shown to be homologous to those of diploid alfalfa (M. sativa), implying a good level of macrosynteny between the two genomes. Using this M. truncatula map and the derived F3 populations, we were able to map the Mtsym6 symbiotic gene on linkage group 8 and the SPC gene, responsible for the direction of pod coiling, on linkage group 7. Conclusions These results demonstrate that Medicago truncatula is amenable to diploid genetic analysis and they open the way to map-based cloning of symbiotic or other agronomically-important genes using this model plant.

,Information on crop genotype- and phenotype-metabolite associations can be of value to trait development as well as to food security and safety. The unique study presented here assessed seed metabolomic and ionomic diversity in a soybean (Glycine max) lineage representing ~35 years of breeding (launch years 1972–2008) and increasing yield potential. Selected varieties included six conventional and three genetically modified (GM) glyphosate-tolerant lines. A metabolomics approach utilizing capillary electrophoresis (CE)-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (TOF-MS), gas chromatography (GC)-TOF-MS and liquid chromatography (LC)-quadrupole (q)-TOFMS resulted in measurement of a total of 732 annotated peaks. Ionomics through inductively-coupled plasma (ICP)-MS profiled twenty mineral elements. Orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) of the seed data successfully differentiated newer higher-yielding soybean from earlier lower-yielding accessions at both field sites. This result reflected genetic fingerprinting data that demonstrated a similar distinction between the newer and older soybean. Correlation analysis also revealed associations between yield data and specific metabolites. There were no clear metabolic differences between the conventional and GM lines. Overall, observations of metabolic and genetic differences between older and newer soybean varieties provided novel and significant information on the impact of varietal development on biochemical variability. Proposed applications of omics in food and feed safety assessments will need to consider that GM is not a major source of metabolite variability and that trait development in crops will, of necessity, be associated with biochemical variation.,,

These data show grass crop and model species response to toxic chemicals (Arsenic (As)) and humic acids. Experiments were performed by collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey, Rutgers University, and Rey Juan Carlos University. A series of individual experiments investigated beneficial effects of endophytic bacteria on grass crop growth and resilience to known plant toxicity.