재래종 서리태는 밥밑용 콩으로 한국인에게 선호되고 있으나, 숙기가 느려 수량성이 떨어지고 콩알이 커서 청소년들에게는 기피 경향이 있다. 서리태의 특성을 개량하고자 1994년 수집한 서리태 종자에 감마선 250 Gy를 조사하여 돌연변이 육종을 시도하였다. 그 후대에서 숙기가 빠르고 수량성이 높으며 콩알 크기가 작아진 유망 돌연변이 계통을 선발하여 ‘조생서리’로 명명하고, 2005년도에 품종보호권 및 국가품종목록등재 신청을 하였으며, 2008년도에 등록을
‘Seoritae’ is a very famous variety of black soybean for mixed cooking with rice in Korea. However, it has a couple of bad traits such as late flowering and maturity. To improve these characteristics, seeds of original ‘Seoritae’ were irradiated using a 250 Gy gamma ray in 1994. Some mutants were identified and finally a new soybean variety ‘Josaengseori’ was developed in 2005. This variety has a few distinguishable characteristics such as smaller grain size, early maturity and high yielding compared to the ‘Seoritae’. The flowering period of ‘Josaengseori’ is 57 days after seeding (DAS), which is 10 days earlier than that of ‘Seoritae’ (67 DAS). The maturation period of ‘Josaengseori’ is 130 DAS, which is 34 days earlier than ‘Seoritae’ (164 DAS). And the total yield of the new variety with 179 kg/10a is 2.4 times higher than that of ‘Seoritae’ with 74 kg/10a. 100 grain weight of ‘Josaengseori’ is 32.8 g, which is 20% lower than that of ‘Seoritae’ with 40.1 g.