Chinese scientists led a team that found key genes for high yield and high quality in soybeans

Xinhua News Agency, Hangzhou, June 5 (Reporter Zhu Han) Zhejiang University, China
experts led by a multi-national joint research team found the control of soybean grain size, oil content and protein content of key genes, this discovery is important for molecular breeding to improve soybean yield and quality. The findings were published in the National Science Review.
Huixia, a professor at Zhejiang University's School of Life Sciences, said that China is the origin of soybeans, and in evolution, wild soybeans have small grains, low oil content and high protein content, and are weed forms. After long-term breeding choice domestication, cultivated soybean grain is large, oil content is increased, is widely spread all over the world, is an important food cash crop worldwide.
this study, teams such as Zhejiang University and the
Institute of Genetic Development collaborated to discover that the Sweet 10 gene played a key role in controlling soybean seed development and oil accumulation using a research platform for soybean functional genes. At the same time, through the DNA sequencing and correlation of more than 800 wild soybean and cultivated soybean gene resources, it is proved that the "sweet 10" gene plays an important role in soybean domestication.
study further found that if the "Sweet 10" gene was removed, the weight of 100 soybean seeds was reduced by 40.2%, the oil content was reduced by 40.7% and the protein content was increased by 32.1%. If the expression of the "sweet 10" gene is improved in cultivated soybeans, the weight and oil content of 100 soybean seeds will be significantly increased, and soybean yield can be increased by 11% to 20%.
Huixia said the study could be applied directly to molecular markers of soybean yield and quality features to aid breeding. In addition, the team also found another "sweet 15" gene that regulates the number of soybean grains in the early stages, and after overlaying the results of this study, it is expected to make a greater breakthrough in soybean high-yield, high-quality and other important conditions.