GENOSOJA - the Brazilian soybean genome consortium: high throughput omics and beyond

Ricardo V Abdelnoor,Alexandre L Nepomuceno,Ana M Benko-Iseppon

doi:10.1590/s1415-47572012000200001

Abstract

Plant genomes are among the most complex and large ones of our planet, with high levels of redundancy when compared to other eukaryotic groups, leading to intricate processes for gene regulation and evolution. Such a complexity demands interdisciplinary and multidimensional approaches in order to allow a better understanding of the processes able to exploit the whole potential of the existing genes in different species, including crop plants. Among cultivated plants, soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] occupies an outstanding position due to its importance as source of protein and oil that may also be converted into biodiesel. The seeds are rarely consumed in natura, but many traditional food products have been consumed, as soymilk, and tofu, as well as fermented products as soy sauce, and soy paste among others, besides its wide use for animal feed. Soybean cultivation has been highly concentrated geographically, with only four countries (USA, Brazil, Argentina and China) accounting for almost 90% of world output. Asia (excluding China) and Africa, the two regions where most of the food insecure countries are located, account for only 5% of production. Among countries classified as ‘undernourished’, only India and Bolivia are significant producers of soybeans (FAO, 2009).

Highlights

Available evidences indicate that the cultivated soybean was domesticated from its wild relative Glycine soja (Sieb. and Zucc.) in China about 5,000 years ago (Carter et al, 2004)
Due to its allopolyploid nature, the first approaches regarded the generation of expressed sequences from different library tissues and conditions, including mainly ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags; Nelson et al, 2005) partially in annotated databases, including ca. 40.000 full length cDNA clones available (Umezawa et al, 2008, see RIKEN Soybean Full-Length cDNA Database), besides analyses regarding RNAseq under different tissues and development stages, as well as under different stressing situations (e.g. Libault et al, 2010; Severin et al, 2010)
Despite of the wide data availability, most data regard cultivars from temperate regions, not adapted for cultivation under tropical conditions, as it is the case of central Brazil and many other tropical countries that are subjected to distinct environmental stresses

Summary

Introduction

Available evidences indicate that the cultivated soybean was domesticated from its wild relative Glycine soja (Sieb. and Zucc.) in China about 5,000 years ago (Carter et al, 2004). Despite of the wide data availability, most data regard cultivars from temperate regions (as Williams 82), not adapted for cultivation under tropical conditions, as it is the case of central Brazil and many other tropical countries that are subjected to distinct environmental stresses.

Results

Conclusion