Conserving biodiversity of soybean gene pool in the biotechnology era

Abstract

AbstractCultivated soybean, Glycine max (L) Merrill, is a world's important food crop domesticated about 4000 years ago in China. It is a member of the genus Glycine in the legume family (Fabaceae). The genus Glycine includes about 20 annual and perennial species distributed primarily in Australia and Asia. The annual wild soybean, Glycine soja, is considered as the immediate ancestor of the cultivated soybean, with its diversification center in China, Korea, Japan and the Far East region of Russia. The weedy form, G. gracilis, is the interspecific hybrid and offspring between G. max and G. soja, indicating the close genetic relationships of the three species. The fast development of transgenic biotechnology and the extensive release of genetically modified (GM) soybean varieties into environment have caused a great biosafety concern of transgene escape and its ecologic consequences, particularly its impact on the origin and diversity center of the cultivated and wild soybeans. Therefore, safeguarding and maintenance of the world's heritage of soybean biodiversity under the circumstances of commercial production of GM soybeans has become a very important issue. This paper presents a general knowledge of the origin and diversification, taxonomic background and geographic distribution of soybeans, as well as the biosystematic and evolutionary relationships of species in the Glycine genus, in addition to the possible gene flow between the cultivated soybean and its closest wild relatives (G. soja and G. gracilis). It also considers how to conserve soybean biodiversity in its origin and diversity centers when GM soybean varieties are released into these areas.