Isoflavone contents in soybean seeds are affected by both genetic and environmental factors. Correlation analysis between these factors and isoflavone contents are considered as valuable inputs when breeding improved soybean cultivars. In this study, the seeds of 49 soybean accessions grown in Korea were grouped as black, yellow, green, yellowish-green, pale yellow, and green with a black spot based on their seed coat colors. The contents of 12 isoflavones were analyzed and the association between isoflavone content and seed coat color was determined. The accessions were also grouped as early, intermediate, and late-maturing based on their days to maturity. Out of the 12 isoflavones, 11 were found in 2 accessions, 9 in 18 accessions, 8 in 11 accessions, 7 in another 11 accessions, and 6 in 7 accessions. The total isoflavone content (TIC) in black, yellow, green, yellowish-green, pale yellow, and green with black spot soybeans was in the ranges 2.110 ~ 5.777, 2.487 ~ 4.733, 2.185 ~ 4.413, 2.681 ~ 4.065, 1.827 ~ 4.085, and 3.376 ~ 4.133 ㎎/g, respectively. The average TIC was highest in green with black spot soybeans (3.616 ㎎/g), and lowest in pale yellow soybeans (2.875 ㎎/g). Besides, the average TIC was lowest in early maturing accessions compared to late- and intermediate-maturing accessions. TIC was strongly correlated to malonylgenistin (r = 0.91) and malonyldaidzin (r = 0.78) contents, and poorly correlated to glycitein (r = 0.04) and malonylglycitin (r = 0.18) contents. Also, days to maturity showed strong correlation with malonylgenistin (r = 0.47) content and TIC (r = 0.38). The principal component analysis outlined accessions with high TIC and diverse isoflavones along the first and second components, respectively. The results of the present study depicted that green soybeans with a black spot could be sources of high TIC. Furthermore, late-maturing accessions with diverse isoflavones in their seeds could be useful in future agricultural systems in Korea.

Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) is an important legume species that produces seeds that are rich in phenolic compounds and dietary nutrients. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the agricultural characters, phenolic and nutritional contents, and antioxidant capacities of seeds from 82 pigeon pea germplasms cultivated in the Republic of Korea. The accessions exhibited compact (24.39%), semi-spreading (74.39%), or spreading (1.22%) growth habits and determinate (89.02%), indeterminate (8.54%), or semi-determinate (2.44%) flowering patterns. Days to 75% maturity ranged from 30 to 72 d, and yield per plant ranged from 6.00 to 148.60 g. Meanwhile, total phenolic, crude protein, crude fiber, and dietary fiber contents ranged from 16.42 ± 0.62 to 29.67 ± 0.43 ㎎ gallic acid equivalent per g of dried extract, from 16.76 ± 6.74% to 22.61 ± 0.05%, from 4.70 ± 0.24 to 8.63 ± 0.02%, and from 12.98 ± 0.71 to 33.19 ± 1.50%, respectively. In addition, DPPH radical-scavenging capacity ranged from 1.61 ± 0.10 to 16.04 ± 2.30 ㎎ ascorbic acid equivalent per g of dried extract, and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity ranged from 3.03 ± 0.86 to 42.24 ± 0.72 ㎎ Trolox equivalent per g of dried extract. Phenolic content was correlated with both DPPH radical-scavenging capacity (r = 0.63) and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (r = 0.29). Nine accessions (IT170290, IT170291, IT170270, IT170276, IT170379, IT170386, IT170388, IT170418, and IT170340) exhibited early maturity, compact and erect growth habits, and above average antioxidant activities and phenolic and protein contents. In addition, accessions IT170290 and IT170291 were especially promising pigeon pea germplasms to grow, owing to various favorable characteristics (e.g., high yield and dietary fiber content). Hence, these accessions could be useful cultivars to the Republic of Korea if considered in future agricultural systems.

This study was carried out to build a database system for amylose and protein contents of rice germplasm based on NIRS (Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy) analysis data. The average waxy type amylose contents was 8.7% in landrace, variety and weed type, whereas 10.3% in breeding line. In common rice, the average amylose contents was 22.3% for landrace, 22.7% for variety, 23.6% for weed type and 24.2% for breeding line. Waxy type resources comprised of 5% of the total germplasm collections, whereas low, intermediate and high amylose content resources share 5.5%, 20.5% and 69.0% of total germplasm collections, respectively. The average percent of protein contents was 8.2 for landrace, 8.0 for variety, and 7.9 for weed type and breeding line. The average Variability Index Value was 0.62 in waxy rice, 0.80 in common rice, and 0.51 in protein contents. The accession ratio in arbitrary ranges of landrace was 0.45 in amylose contents ranging from 6.4 to 8.7%, and 0.26 in protein ranging from 7.3 to 8.2%. In the variety, it was 0.32 in amylose ranging from 20.1 to 22.7%, and 0.51 in protein ranging from 6.1 to 8.3%. And also, weed type was 0.67 in amylose ranging from 6.6 to 9.7%, and 0.33 in protein ranging from 7.0 to 7.9%, whereas, in breeding line it was 0.47 in amylose ranging from 10.0 to 12.0%, and 0.26 in protein ranging from 7.0 to 7.9%. These results could be helpful to build database programming system for germplasm management.

A statistical analysis for 3651 genetic resources collected from China (1,542), Japan (1,409), Korea (413), and India (287) was conducted using normal distribution, variability index value (VIV), analysis of variation (ANOVA) and Ducan’s multiple range test (DMRT) based on a data obtained from NIRS analysis. In normal distribution, the average protein content was 8.0%, whereas waxy type amylose and common rice amylose were found to be 8.7% and 22.7%, respectively. The protein contents ranged from 5.4 to 10.6% at the level of 95%. The waxy amylose and common rice amylose ranged from 5.9 to 11.5%, and from 16.9 to 28.5% at 95% confidence level, respectively. The VIV was 0.59 for protein, 0.64 for low amylose, and 0.81 for high amylose contents. The average amylose contents were 18.85% in Japanese, 19.99% in Korean, 20.27% in Chinese, and 25.46% in Indian resources, while the average protein contents were found to be 7.23% in Korean, 7.73% in Japanese, 8.01% in Chinese, and 8.17% in Indian resources. The ANOVA of amylose and protein content showed significant differences at the level of 0.01. The F-test for amylose content was 158.34, and for protein content 53.95 compared to critical value 3.78. The DMRT of amylose and protein content showed significant difference (p<0.01) between resources of different countries. Japanese resources had the lowest level of amylose contents, whereas, the lowest level of protein content was found in Korean resources compared to other origins. Indian resources showed the highest level of amylose and protein contents. It is recommended these results should be helpful to future breeding experiments.

In Korea, common and Tartary buckwheat are cultivated mainly in spring and fall, however the available buckwheat varieties are still very limited. In this study, we have evaluated buckwheat germplasm for agronomic traits and compared flavonoids contents in different cultivation period and collection area. In common buckwheat, the number of days from sowing to flowering was 40 and 31 days and from sowing to maturity took 90 and 69 days in spring and fall cultivation, respectively. The number of nodes and branches were higher in spring cultivation while the hundred seed weight was higher in fall cultivation. The average flavonoids contents in common buckwheat were 0.20 ㎎/g dry weight (DW) and 0.40 ㎎/g DW in spring and fall cultivation, respectively. The highest flavonoids content was detected in Jeonnam accessions with 0.29 ㎎/g DW and 0.43 ㎎/g DW during spring and fall cultivation, respectively. The flavonoids contents were varied from 1.5 to 2.5 times according to the collection area. These results suggest that the agronomic traits and flavonoids contents were vary depending on the cultivation environment and germplasm collection area. Therefore, it is necessary to select the material by considering the characteristics of the germplasm for breeding of new varieties.

This study was conducted to characterize the amylose and protein contents of 4,948 rice landrace germplasm using the NIRS model developed in the previous study. The average amylose content of the germplasm was 20.39% and ranged between 3.97 and 37.13%. The amylose contents in the standard rice were 4.99, 18.63 and 20.55% in Sinseonchal, Chucheong and Goami, respectively. The average protein content was 8.17% and ranged from 5.20 to 17.45%. Protein contents in Sinseonchal, Chucheong and Goami were 6.824, 6.869 and 7.839%, respectively. A total of 62% germplasm were distributed between 20.06% and 27.02% in amylose content. Germplasm of 81.60% represented protein content of 6.78-9.75%. The distinguishable ranges of amylose contents according to origin were 16.58-20.06% in Korea, 20.06-23.25% in Japan, 23.25-27.02% in North Korea, and 27.02-37.13% in China. In the protein content, approximately 30% of Chinese resources ranged from 9.75 to 17.45%, whereas less than 10% were detected in other origin accessions. Fifty resources were selected with low and high amylose ranging from 3.97-6.66% and 30.41-37.13%, respectively. Similarly, fifty resources were selected with low and high protein ranging from 5.20-6.09% and 13.21-17.45%, respectively. Landraces with higher protein could be adapted to practical utilization of food sources.

Little millet (Panicum sumatrense) is well known for its salt and drought stress tolerance and high nutritional value, but very limited knowledge of genetic variation and genomic information is available. In this study, a total of 779 primer pairs were designed from the 22,961 EST sequences of switchgrass (Pancium virgatum), of which 48 EST-SSR markers were developed based on the trials of transferability of these primers in little millet. The EST-SSR amplicons showed reproducible single band polymorphism and produced a total of 160 alleles with an average of 3.3 alleles per locus in 37 accessions of little millet. The average values of expected and observed heterozygosities were 0.266 and 0.123, respectively. The polymorphic information content (PIC) values were observed in range of 0.026 to 0.549 with an average of 0.240. The genetic relatedness among the little millet accessions was evaluated by neighbor-joining dendrogram, which grouped all accessions into two distinct groups. The validation thus demonstrated the utility of the switchgrass EST-SSR markers in assessing genomic relationships in little millet. The findings from this study could be useful for designing strategies for the identification of diverse germplasm for conservation and future molecular breeding programs for little millet.

The objective of this research was to develop Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) model for amylose and protein contents analysis of large accessions of rice germplasm. A total of 511 accessions of rice germplasm were obtained from National Agrobiodiversity Center to make calibration equation. The accessions were measured by NIRS for both brown and milled brown rice which was additionally assayed by iodine and Kjeldahl method for amylose and crude protein contents. The range of amylose and protein content in milled brown rice were 6.15-32.25% and 4.72-14.81%, respectively. The correlation coefficient (R 2 ), standard error of calibration (SEC) and slope of brown rice were 0.906, 1.741, 0.995 in amylose and 0.941, 0.276, 1.011 in protein, respectively, whereas R 2 , SEC and slope of milled brown rice values were 0.956, 1.159, 1.001 in amylose and 0.982, 0.164, 1.003 in protein, respectively. Validation results of this NIRS equation showed a high coefficient determination in prediction for amylose (0.962) and protein (0.986), and also low standard error in prediction (SEP) for amylose (2.349) and protein (0.415). These results suggest that NIRS equation model should be practically applied for determination of amylose and crude protein contents in large accessions of rice germplasm.

Rice blast, caused by a fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, is one of the most devastating diseases of rice worldwide. Analyzing the valuable genetic resources is important in making progress towards blast resistance. Molecular screening of major rice blast resistance (R) genes was determined in 2,509 accessions of rice germplasm from different geographic regions of Asia and Europe using PCR based markers which showed linkage to twelve major blast R genes, Pik-p, Pi39, Pit, Pik-m, Pi-d(t)2, Pii, Pib, Pik, Pita, Pita/Pita-2, Pi5, and Piz-t. Out of 2,509 accessions, only two accessions had maximum nine blast resistance genes followed by eighteen accessions each with eight R genes. The polygenic combination of three genes was possessed by maximum number of accessions (824), while among others 48 accessions possessed seven genes, 119 accessions had six genes, 267 accessions had five genes, 487 accessions had four genes, 646 accessions had two genes, and 98 accessions had single R gene. The Pik-p gene appeared to be omnipresent and was detected in all germplasm. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that Pita, Pita/Pita-2, Pi-d(t)2, Pib and Pit were the major genes responsible for resistance in the germplasm. The present investigation revealed that a set of 68 elite germplasm accessions would have a competitive edge over the current resistance donors being utilized in the breeding programs. Overall, these results might be useful to identify and incorporate the resistance genes from germplasm into elite cultivars through marker assisted selection in rice breeding.

Understanding the genetic variation among landrace collections is important for crop improvement and utilization of valuable genetic resources. The present study was carried out to analyse the genetic diversity and associated population structure of 621 foxtail millet accessions of Korean landraces using 22 EST-SSR markers. A total of 121 alleles were detected from all accessions with an average of 5.5 alleles per microsatellite locus. The average values of gene diversity, polymorphism information content, and expected heterozygosity were 0.518, 0.594, and 0.034, respectively. Following the unweighted neighbor-joining method with arithmetic mean based clustering using binary data of polymorphic markers, the genotypes were grouped into 3 clusters, and population structure analysis also separated into 3 populations. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) explained a variation of 13.88% and 10.99% by first and second coordinates, respectively. However, in PCoA analysis, clear population-level clusters could not be found. This pattern of distribution might be the result of gene flow via germplasm exchanges in nearby regions. The results indicate that these Korean landraces of foxtail millet exhibit a moderate level of diversity. This study demonstrated that molecular marker strategies could contribute to a better understanding of the genetic structure in foxtail millet germplasm, and provides potentially useful information for developing conservation and breeding strategies.

Low temperature germinability (LTG) is an important trait for breeding of varieties for use in direct-seeding rice production systems. Although rice (Oryza sativa L.) is generally sensitive to low temperatures, genetic variation for LTG exists and several quantitative trait loci (QTLs) have been reported. The objective of this study was to develop and employ high-efficiency molecular markers for evaluation of LTG in rice germplasm. A panel of japonica rice accessions (n=180) from temperate regions in Asia was evaluated for LTG and genotyped with markers from regions previously reported to harbor other LTG QTLs. ANOVA revealed that four markers on chromosome 2, 4, and 11 from previously reported QTLs showed highly significant value (p < 1.0e-04) and their R2 ranged 0.083 (qLTG11-1) to 0.190 (qLTG4b-1). An association analysis was conducted using SNP data generated by sequencing of the panel. Eight SNP markers were found to be significantly associated with LTG using general and mixed linear models. Three SNP-based CAPS and dCAPS markers from these results were developed and showed higher accuracy in predicting sensitive LTG germplasm. These new LTG markers will be useful for molecular evaluation of germplasm, particularly to identify sensitive or weak LTG accessions.

This experiment was carried out to compare the morphological traits of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian(SEA) soybeans from RDA genebank. Days to flowering were ranged from 51 to 125 days with an average of 75 days. Those of China were the shortest with an average of 58 days and those of SEA were the longest with an average of 99 days. Growth days were the shortest with 94 days from China, and longest with 188 days from Korea and SEA. The 100 seed weight of soybeans was ranged from 3.4g to 46.4g, with an average 22.2g. The 100 seed weight was the lightest with an average 11.8g from SEA and the heaviest with an average 24.6g from Korea. In growth habit, over 50% of being collected from Korea, Japan and China were erect type, but 94% from SEA were intermediate type. The highest percentage of seed coat color was yellow(66.1%), followed by yellowing green(10.0%). As a result of cotyledon color in 760 black seed was 76.1% with yellow, 23.9% with green. Green cotyledon was much more in Korea(38.6%) and Japan(33.3%) than other countries. One thousand seven accessions from Korea, Japan, China and SEA were analyzed using 7 SSR markers. One hundred eighty alleles were detected with a lowest 16 at the Satt537 and a highest 35 at the Satt390. The average polymorphism information content(PIC) was 0.68, the highest with 0.7 in Japan. Gene diversity was the highest with 0.73 in China and Japan, while the lowest in SEA with 0.68.

Glutenin is the major factor responsible for the unique viscoelastic dough characterisitcs of wheat flour, which determine mixing and bread baking performance(X.Shan et al, 2007). And early maturity is one of the most important cultural characteristic in Korea because of its winter cropping system. This study is to reveal the genetic properties of Asian wheat landrace collection originated from 6 separate regions such as Korea, China, Japan, Afganistan, Iran, Pakistan, Caucasus, and Middle East. Using germplasms maintained in National Agrobiodiversity Center, RDA, Korea, the variations in morphological character and HMW glutenin subunit composition were investigated. In this study, Glu-A1c(null), Glu-B1b(7+8) and Glu-D1a(2+12) alleles are the most frequent in Asian landrace wheats. When it comes to unique composition, Glu-B1aj(8) and Glu-D1q(2+11) subunits are only in Afghanistan wheat. And Glu-B1k(22), Glu-D1l(12), Glu-D1m(10) subunits are only in accessions from Pakistan, Korea, and China, respectively. The accessions from Iran and Caucasus have the highest PIC value(0.57), which shows wheat origin region has high genetic diversity. Grouping by UPGMA anlysis of combination of Glu-1 allele, most accessions from Afghanistan, Korea, and Japan were in the same group despite of geological distance. Contrasively, many germplasms originated from China, Caucasus, and Middle East were in the other same group. The evaluation of bread baking quality by Glu-1 scoring system, 34 accessions are perfect 10. 16 samples from China and 1 Afghanistan among them were also matured before early June, suitable to Korean cropping system. Especially, 3 accessions(K151847, K151865, K151962) had extremely early maturity, ripened before late May. These genetic resources having good gluten quality and early maturity are expected to be used for Korea wheat breeding system.

This study aimed to evaluate 105 tomato accessions conserved in National Agrobiodiversity Center regarding their resistance to Ralstonia solanacearum, a soil-borne vascular bacterium that causes lethal wilt diseases of a wide range of crops worldwide. All the accessions are Solanum lycopericum var. lycopersicum including cultivar or breeding lines. At the four leaf stage, the seedlings were inoculated by drenching the soil with the bacterial suspension concentrated of 108 CFU/ml. Plant roots were wounded before inoculation by cutting with the knife. Seven accessions including IT 32899 were rated as resistant, while other 98 accessions were rated as susceptible. IT 32899 scored 0.1 of disease rate and 0.7 of disease index. The selected accessions will be used as a material to reveal the mechanism of wilt tolerance and to identify the host gene involved in defense response.

This study is to raise the utilization of genetic resource of wheat (Triticum aestivum) landrace by evaluating genetic variation related to end use quality of the Far East. Allelic composition of HMW-glutenin subunits encoded by genes of Glu-1 loci associated with bread baking quality was investigated in 324 wheat landrace genetic resources originated from Korea, China, and Japan. The most frequent combination of HMW-glutenin subunits were Glu-A1c, Glu-B1b in Korean and Japanese resources, but Glu-A1a and Glu-B1c were the most in Chinese resources. By using the Glu-1 score system, 24 accessions were evaluated as 10 out of 10. As for genetic diversity, represented by polymorphic information content(PIC) index, the level of variation of Korean landrace(0.245) was lower than that in China(0.569) and Japan(0.294). When it comes to unique composition, Glu-B1f(13+16) and Glu-D1f(2+10) subunits are only in Chinese resources. Glu-B1d(6+8), Glu-B1e(20), Glu-D1b(7+8), and Glu-D1c (7+9) subunits are only in Korean resources. Consequently, this study showed that Chinese landrace collection was the most highly diverse and had distinctive characteristics compared to Korean and Japanese one. Especially, some resources having preferable genetic stock or high Glu-1 score can be valuable for wheat breeding program.