4.1. Plant Material

The plant material used in this study consisted of 207 soybean cultivars representing the European gene pool with suitable maturity groups ranging from MG000 to MGII (Table 4). Traditional and elite cultivars, collected from breeding companies and reference collections in Croatia (Faculty of Agriculture University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, Agricultural Institute Osijek, Osijek, Croatia, Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food, Osijek, Croatia) and Italy (Regional Agriculture Agency of Friuli Venezia Giulia,, ERSA, ERSA, Pozzuolo del Friuli UD, Italy, and Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, CREA, Lodi, Italy) were divided into groups according to the country of origin (origin of breeding program) and maturity group. Additionally, several historical accessions originating from Asia (Russia, China, Japan) obtained from the Noah Ark collection (www.arche-noah.at), and the North and South American continents (Argentina, Canada, and USA) were also included in this investigation because these were introduced in the European soybean breeding program during the past decades. Specific information for plant material is listed in Table S4 and Figure S2.

Plant material by country of origin and maturity group.