Registration of R19‐42848 as a drought‐tolerant, high‐yielding soybean germplasm line

Abstract R19‐42848 (Reg. no. GP‐532, PI 706865) is a high‐yielding soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] germplasm with drought tolerance released by the University of Arkansas System – Division of Agriculture Research & Extension Center in 2024. It is an F 4 ‐derived selection from the cross R12‐2237 (drought‐tolerant) × R12‐519 (high‐yielding). R19‐42848 is a conventional (non‐genetically modified) soybean with a relative maturity of 5.2. Plants have determinate growth habit with purple flower color, gray pubescence, and tan pod wall at maturity. Seed of R19‐42848 has buff hilum color, 100‐seed weight of 13.8 g, and contains on average 404.5 and 211.5 g kg −1 of protein and oil on a dry basis, respectively. R19‐42848 showed high‐yielding and broad adaptability across 28 environments in Arkansas and three other states during the 4 years of yield trials under irrigated conditions (4275 kg ha −1 , 91.4% of the checks’ mean). Additionally, it demonstrated high yield and slow canopy wilting in rainfed conditions across 14 environments over 3 years (2489 kg ha −1 , 96.2% of the checks’ mean). Under irrigated conditions, R19‐42848 yielded numerically higher than drought‐tolerant check Ellis (105.2%), while statistically similar in rainfed conditions (99.9%). Therefore, R19‐42848 is a valuable genetic resource for public and private soybean breeding programs attempting to incorporate drought‐tolerant alleles into their breeding pipeline.