Soybean genomics: Efforts to reveal the complex genome

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) is the most important leguminous crop in the world due to its highest content of high-quality protein for food and feed, and its capacity of oil production for food and industrial materials. Physiologically functional constituents in soybean seeds contribute significantly to human health, and because of its characteristic symbiosis with root bacteroids, soybean supplies nitrogen to soil. Although soybean has a relatively large and complex genome, several methods for genome analysis have been applied to obtain improved genotypes and to elucidate the special function of soybean. Research activities undertaken to analyze soybean genome structure and function include the construction of high density linkage maps, integration of trait loci into linkage maps, development of bacterial artificial chromosome libraries, physical mapping, large collection of expressed sequence tags, development of large populations of mutagenized plants and large-scale sequencing of gene-rich regions.