Differential Capability of Korean Soybean Varieties to Biosynthesize Glyceollins

Abstract

Glyceollins synthesized in soybeans exposed to biotic or abiotic stress were reported to have several health benefits. Soybean accumulated glyceollins at widely different levels depending upon the varieties when elicitated with Asp. sojae. Contrary to our hypothesis that high‐isoflavone variety may accumulate glyceollins upon elicitation more efficiently, glyceollin accumulation mediated by fungal elicitation was not significantly affected by the concentration of either total isoflavones or daidzein in soybean. However the levels of glyceollins were also significantly affected by the elicitation methods, showing that fungal stress was most efficient in glyceollin production. Therefore, glyceollin accumulation in soybean seems to be affected by several factors such as the responsiveness of genes involved in glyceollin biosynthesis to elicitors as revealed by comparison of mRNA gene expression involved in glyceollin synthesis by RT‐PCR. This data suggest that glyceollin accumulation in soybean seems to be more affected by other factors such as the responsiveness of genes involved in glyceollin biosynthesis to the elicitors and types of elicitors than isoflavone content.Grant Funding Source: National Research Foundation of Korea