Soybean Improvement Physiological, Molecular and Genetic Perspectives

Soybean (Glycine max L. (Merr)) is one of the most important crops worldwide. Soybean seeds are vital for both protein meal and vegetable oil. Soybean was domesticated in China, and since last 4-5 decades it has become one of the most widely grown crops around the globe. The crop is grown on an anticipated 6% of the world’s arable land, and since the 1970s, the area in soybean production has the highest percentage increase compared to any other major crop. It is a major crop in the United States, Brazil, China and Argentina and important in many other countries. The cultivated soybean has one wild annual relative, G. soja, and 23 wild perennial relatives. Soybean has spread to many Asian countries two to three thousand years ago, but was not known in the West until the 18th century. Among the various constraints responsible for decrease in soybean yields are the biotic and abiotic stresses which have recently increased as a result of changing climatic scenarios at global level. Alot of work has been done for cultivar development and germplasm enhancement through conventional plant breeding. This has resulted in development of numerous high yielding and climate resilient soybean varieties. Despite of this development, plant breeding is long-term by nature, resource dependent and climate dependent. Due to the advancement in genomics and phenomics, significant insights have been gained in the identification of genes for yield improvement, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress and increased quality parameters in soybean. Molecular breeding has become routine and with the advent of next generation sequencing technologies resulting in SNP based molecular markers, soybean improvement has taken a new dimension and resulted in mapping of genes for various traits that include disease resistance, insect resistance, high oil content and improved yield.

This book includes chapters from renowned potential soybean scientists to discuss the latest updates on soybean molecular and genetic perspectives to elucidate the complex mechanisms to develop biotic and abiotic stress resilience in soybean. Recent studies on the improvement of oil quality and yield in soybean have also been incorporated.

Dr. Shabir Hussain Wani is Assistant professor (Senior Scale) at Mountain Research Centre for Field Crops, Khudwani –192101, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, J&K, India. He received Ph.D. degree in plant breeding and genetics from the Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana, India. He teaches courses related to plant breeding, seed science and technology, and stress breeding and has published more than 100 papers/chapters in journals and books of international repute. He has also edited several books on current topics in crop improvement for abiotic stress tolerance published by Springer Nature and CRC press USA. Recently he was selected as Member National Academy of Sciences, India. He also served as visiting Scientist at Department of Plant Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, USA under the UGC Raman Post-Doctoral Fellowship programme. Currently, he is leading the  Wheat improvement programme at MRCFC Khudwani SKAUST Kashmir.

Dr. Najeeb ul Rehman Sofi is Professor cum Chief Scientist and Associate Director Research, Mountain Research Centre for Field Crops, Khudwani, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar J&K, India.  He has been instrumental in breeding rice varieties for temperate ecologies of Kashmir region. He teaches courses related to plant breeding, seed science and technology. He has guided many postgraduate students and has attended numerous international and national conferences presenting his work on rice improvement. Currently he is leading the Rice improvement programme at SKUAST Kashmir.

Dr. M. Ashraf Bhat is Professor cum Chief Scientist and Head Division of Plant Biotechnology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar J&K, India. He received Ph.D. degree in Plant breeding and Genetics from the Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana, India. He teaches courses related to plant breeding, seed science and technology, and Plant biotechnology. He has published more that 80 papers in journals of International and national repute. Recently he released Shalimar Soybean 2 and high yielding variety for release in Jammu and Kashmir State. He has attended many International and national conferences to present his research on improvement of field crops for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance using molecular breeding approaches. 

Dr Feng Lin is a Post-Doctoral Associate at Department of Plant Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University, East Lansing USA. He has been working in a field of Soybean molecular breeding for biotic stress tolerance since more than a decade. He has published more than 30 papers in journals of international repute. He has attended many international conferences to present his work on Soybean breeding and genetics.