‘USDA‐N8002’ (Reg. No. CV‐519, PI 676972) is a conventional maturity‐group (MG) VIII soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cultivar developed and released by the USDA‐ARS in September 2015. USDA‐N8002 is the first North American MG VIII soybean cultivar exhibiting drought resistance and high yield potential. It is the first U.S. release derived from PI 471938 (25% by pedigree) and the second MG VIII release derived from PI 416937 (12.5% by pedigree). USDA‐N8002 exhibits slow or delayed canopy‐wilting, sustained N fixation during drought stress, and a water‐conserving transpiration response when exposed to atmospheric vapor pressure deficit. USDA‐N8002 is an F4–derived cultivar from a cross of USDA‐ARS cultivar N7002 and USDA‐ARS breeding line N98‐7265. USDA‐N8002 was yield tested in a total of 74 environments across the southeastern United States in the United Soybean Board Southern Soybean Diversity Yield Trials MGVII‐VIII (Diversity Trials), the USDA Uniform Soybean Tests– Southern States, Uniform Group VIII (Uniform Tests), and the North Carolina Official Variety Tests MG VII–VIII (NC‐OVT). USDA‐N8002 yielded 7% greater (p < 0.05) than the check cultivar N8001 in the Uniform Tests, 5% greater in the NC‐OVT (p < 0.05), and 5% greater in the Diversity Trials (p = 0.09). The diverse ancestry, drought resistance, and high yield potential of this release suggest it can provide new options for soybean breeding and production in the southeastern United States.

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The genetic base of US soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is relatively narrow and derived primarily from Chinese ancestors. Since Japanese lines have been an underutilized resource, their incorporation into US breeding populations may aid soybean improvement. N6001 (Reg No. GP-396, PI 674170) is a conventional soybean germplasm of group VI maturity released by the USDA-ARS and the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service in September 2014. N6001 traces 25% of its pedigree to Japanese cultivar Suzuyutaka and 75% to US cultivar Young. This is the first release of a germplasm derived from Suzuyutaka, which is adapted to North America. N6001 was yield-tested across the southeastern United States in the United Soybean Board Southern Diversity Yield Trial Project and in the USDA Uniform Soybean Tests-Southern States. N6001 yielded 8.9% greater than, and had comparable protein content to, the adapted parent Young (p < 0.05) in the Uniform Tests. N6001 also yielded 8.7% more than Young (p < 0.05) in the Diversity Trials. Over 24 environments, N6001 yielded 98% of elite check cultivar NC-Roy. The improved performance of N6001 over its adapted parent, and near parity with NC-Roy, suggests that yield-enhancing alleles were transferred from Suzuyutaka to N6001. The maintenance of seed protein content with increased yield in N6001 suggests that these genetics may help mitigate the typical negative relation between seed protein content and seed yield.