Wild Soybeans: An Opportunistic Resource for Soybean Improvement

Reduced genetic diversity in cultivated soybean coupled with changing dietary expectations, climate change, and increase in population demands expansion of current gene pool. Wild soybeans are an opportunistic resource and a rational choice to discover novel genes and gene families for alternative crop production systems and to improve soybean. Multiple agronomic traits, lineage-specific genes, and domestication-related traits have been studied in wild soybeans in contrast to cultivated soybeans, and it has been proved that wild soybeans are an essential genomic resource containing unique and useful genetic resources that have been lost during domestication to expand the gene pool in order to improve soybean. Wild soybean is very often a plant of disturbed habitats of Southeast Asia. The vulnerability of these habitats to agriculture systems and urban expansion causes a reduction in the area of distribution and hence the diversity. To capture the wild soybean genetic diversity in its main distribution areas, a unique and comprehensive germplasm collection, characterization, and conservation platform is direly needed. Chung’s Wild Legume Germplasm Collection is preserving and maintaining a representative wild soybean germplasm collection guided by the principles of conservation genetics. These wild legumes and particularly wild soybean is a promising genetic resource for soybean breeders

Wheat in the Era of Genomics and Transgenics

Wheat, as one of the most important cereal crops in the world and second major caloric source in the world after rice, is the major staple food in South Asia and many other countries of the world. Prior to onset of “Green Revolution,” South Asian countries were facing the threat of severe famine. Green Revolution wheat genotypes brought out these countries from the crisis they were facing and has helped them to sustain their productions for more than half a century. With the emergence of molecular biology and biotechnology, another window of opportunity is opened to sustain wheat yields by using modern techniques of genes identification and utilization. Through this chapter, we have tried to gather information that was generated for wheat improvement in last 3 decades. These afforest included the development of molecular markers, mapping of genes, sequencing of markers genes, and their utilization through marker-assisted selection. The other part recorded various efforts to genetically transform wheat for traits improvements and/or to study their molecular control

Impact on environment, ecosystem, diversity and health from culturing and using GMOs as feed and food

Modern agriculture provides the potential for sustainable feeding of the world's increasing population. Up to the present moment, genetically modified (GM) products have enabled increased yields and reduced pesticide usage. Nevertheless, GM products are controversial amongst policy makers, scientists and the consumers, regarding their possible environmental, ecological, and health risks. Scientific-and-political debates can even influence legislation and prospective risk assessment procedure. Currently, the scientifically-assessed direct hazardous impacts of GM food and feed on fauna and flora are conflicting; indeed, a review of literature available data provides some evidence of GM environmental and health risks. Although the consequences of gene flow and risks to biodiversity are debatable. Risks to the environment and ecosystems can exist, such as the evolution of weed herbicide resistance during GM cultivation. A matter of high importance is to provide precise knowledge and adequate current information to regulatory agencies, governments, policy makers, researchers, and commercial GMO-releasing companies to enable them to thoroughly investigate the possible risks

A reference-grade wild soybean genome

Wild relatives of crop plants are invaluable germplasm for genetic improvement. Here, Xie et al. report a reference-grade wild soybean genome and show that it can be used to identify structural variation and refine quantitative trait loci

A reference-grade wild soybean genome

Efficient crop improvement depends on the application of accurate genetic information contained in diverse germplasm resources. Here we report a reference-grade genome of wild soybean accession W05, with a final assembled genome size of 1013.2 Mb and a contig N50 of 3.3 Mb. The analytical power of the W05 genome is demonstrated by several examples. First, we identify an inversion at the locus determining seed coat color during domestication. Second, a translocation event between chromosomes 11 and 13 of some genotypes is shown to interfere with the assignment of QTLs. Third, we find a region containing copy number variations of the Kunitz trypsin inhibitor (KTI) genes. Such findings illustrate the power of this assembly in the analysis of large structural variations in soybean germplasm collections. The wild soybean genome assembly has wide applications in comparative genomic and evolutionary studies, as well as in crop breeding and improvement programs

Genetic Improvement of Cereals and Grain Legumes

The anticipated population growth by 2050 will be coupled with increased food demand. To achieve higher and sustainable food supplies in order to feed the global population by 2050, a 2.4% rise in the yield of major crops is required. The key to yield improvement is a better understanding of the genetic variation and identification of molecular markers, quantitative trait loci, genes, and pathways related to higher yields and increased tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Advances in genetic technologies are enabling plant breeders and geneticists to breed crop plants with improved agronomic traits. This Special Issue is an effort to report the genetic improvements by adapting genomic techniques and genomic selection

Optimizing the fermentation condition of low salted squid Jeotgal by lactic acid bacteria with enhanced antioxidant activity

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are widely used as starter culture in food fermentation due to their harmless entity and health beneficial properties along with the ability to change texture, aroma, flavor and acidity of food products. In this study, five different LAB (FB003, FB058, FB077, FB081, and FB111) isolated from different Korean traditional fermented foods, assigned to Lactobacillus plantarum, Pediococcus pentosaceus, Weissella viridescens, Lactobacillus sakei, and Leuconostoc mesenteroides, respectively, on the basis of their physiological properties and 16S rRNA sequence analysis, to use as fermentation starter and check their ability to fasten the ripening time as well as the overall optimization in the fermentation condition. To check their suitability as starters, their safety, acid and bile tolerance, NaCl and temperature resistance, susceptibility to common antibiotics, and antimicrobial activities were determined. Squid jeotgal samples were prepared by adding 10 CFU/g of each strain in different samples, which were then kept for fermentation at 4 °C and checked for their antioxidant activities at 0, 7, 15, and 21-day intervals. The samples fermented with FB003 and FB077 displayed the highest antioxidant activity. This study revealed two effective starter cultures (FB003, FB077) for squid jeotgal fermentation, which presented increased functionalities. The results of this study will lead to the development of novel industrial-scale production avenues for jeotgal preparation, and offer new insights into the prevention and control of chronic diseases

Differential anticancer effect of fermented squid jeotgal due to varying concentrations of soymilk additive

Fermentation plays a vital role in the nutritional enrichment of food. Korea has a long tradition of adding fermented food to the daily diet and jeotgal is one of the common fermented and salted foods in Korean cuisine. In our study, we added soymilk as an additive to squid jeotgal to improve its functionality. We mixed different concentrations of soymilk (2, 5, and 10 mg/g) with squid jeotgal samples, fermented them for one week, and then tested their antioxidant and anticancer activities to compare with those of squid jeotgal samples without soymilk additive. To investigate the anticancer characteristics, glutathione-S-transferase (GST)-pi enzyme assay was used. To test the antioxidant activities, various assays were performed, including 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl free radical scavenging activity, 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium saltradical cation scavenging assay, and reducing power assay. Samples fermented with a small amount of soymilk showed excellent anticancer activity. The addition of only 2 mg/g of soymilk to squid jeotgal inhibited the activity of GST-pi by almost 50% when compared with the sample with no addition. Moreover, no undesirable bitterness or astringency was noticed. Our results could help to improve the current food status of squid jeotgal and it could be used to reduce the risk of chronic disease along with its basic nutritional function