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It is useful to analyze volatile flavor compounds and identify characteristic fingerprints for improving the aroma of vegetable soybean in the vegetable soybean breeding program. In this study, headspace‐gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry was applied to evaluate the volatile compounds of four vegetable soybean cultivars with different preservation processes. The results revealed that aldehydes, alcohols, and esters determined the basic volatile flavor of the vegetable soybean seeds. The peak intensities of most of the volatile compounds varied significantly between both cultivars and preservation methods. Compared with the preservation processes, the differences between cultivars would contribute more to the flavor. The characteristic fingerprints were further identified in the four cultivars, including Xiang Dou, Changxing Qingdou, Wu Pi Qing Ren, and Zhe Xian No. 84, with different preservation processes. Although the flavor could be affected by the preservation processing, the cultivar Zhe Xian No. 84 was the least affected among these cultivars and had great value in both promotion and application in vegetable soybean production. These results could provide useful information for improving the seed taste quality of vegetable soybean in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Betaine aldehyde dehydrogenases (BADHs) are key enzymes in the biosynthesis of glycine betaine, which is an important organic osmolyte that maintains cell structure and improves plant tolerance to abiotic stresses, especially in halotolerant plants. Improving the drought tolerance of crops will greatly increase their yield. In this study, a novel BADH gene named SgBADH from Suaeda glauca was induced by drought stress or abscisic acid. To explore the biological function of SgBADH, the SgBADH gene was transformed into Arabidopsis. Then, we found SgBADH-overexpressing Arabidopsis seedlings showed enhanced tolerance to drought stress. SgBADH transgenic Arabidopsis seedlings also had longer roots compared with controls under drought stress, while SgBADH-overexpressing Arabidopsis exhibited increased glycine betaine accumulation and decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) under drought stress. Our results suggest that SgBADH might be a positive regulator in plants during the response to drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphorus (P) is essential for all living cells and organisms, and low-P stress is a major factor constraining plant growth and yield worldwide. In plants, P efficiency is a complex quantitative trait involving multiple genes, and the mechanisms underlying P efficiency are largely unknown. Combining linkage analysis, genome-wide and candidate-gene association analyses, and plant transformation, we identified a soybean gene related to P efficiency, determined its favorable haplotypes and developed valuable functional markers. First, six major genomic regions associated with P efficiency were detected by performing genome-wide associations (GWAs) in various environments. A highly significant region located on chromosome 8, qPE8, was identified by both GWAs and linkage mapping and explained 41% of the phenotypic variation. Then, a regional mapping study was performed with 40 surrounding markers in 192 diverse soybean accessions. A strongly associated haplotype (P = 10−7) consisting of the markers Sat_233 and BARC-039899-07603 was identified, and qPE8 was located in a region of approximately 250 kb, which contained a candidate gene GmACP1 that encoded an acid phosphatase. GmACP1 overexpression in soybean hairy roots increased P efficiency by 11–20% relative to the control. A candidate-gene association analysis indicated that six natural GmACP1 polymorphisms explained 33% of the phenotypic variation. The favorable alleles and haplotypes of GmACP1 associated with increased transcript expression correlated with higher enzyme activity. The discovery of the optimal haplotype of GmACP1 will now enable the accurate selection of soybeans with higher P efficiencies and improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying P efficiency in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetable soybean is a type of value-added specialty soybean, served as a fresh vegetable or snack in China. Due to the difference from other types, it is important to understand the genetic structure and diversity of vegetable soybean for further utilization in breeding programs. The four vegetable cultivars, Taiwan-75, Zhexiandou No. 8, Zhexian No. 9 and Zhexian No. 10 are popular soybean varieties planted in Zhejiang province, and have large pods and intermediate maturity. The clustering showed a close relationship of these four cultivars in simple sequence repeat analysis. To reveal the genome variation of vegetable soybean, these four improved lines were analyzed by whole-genome re-sequencing. The average sequencing depth was 7X and the coverage ratio of each cultivar was at least more than 94%. Compared with the reference genome, a large number of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, insertion/deletions and structure variations were identified with different chromosome distributions. The average heterozygosity rate of the single-nucleotide polymorphisms was 11.99% of these four cultivars. According to the enrichment analysis, there were 23,371 genes identified with putative modifications, and a total of 282 genes were related to carbohydrate metabolic processes. These results provide useful information for genetic research and future breeding, which can facilitate the selection procedures in vegetable soybean breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GmNAC5 is a member of NAM subfamily belonging to NAC transcription factors in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.). Studies on NAC transcription factors have shown that this family functioned in the regulation of shoot apical meristem (SAM), hormone signalling, and stress responses. In this study, we examined the expression levels of GmNAC5. GmNAC5 was highly expressed in the roots and immature seeds, especially strongly in immature seeds of 40 days after flowering. In addition, we found that GmNAC5 was induced by mechanical wounding, high salinity, and cold treatments but was not induced by abscisic acid (ABA). The subcellular localization assay suggested that GmNAC5 was targeted at nucleus. Together, it was suggested that GmNAC5 might be involved in seed development and abiotic stress responses in soybean.