Purpose

To determine the critical combination of environmental and genetic factors that will allow for the production of soybean seeds with high or low isoflavone levels.

Soybean isoflavones are emerging as the most prominent anticarcinogens in soybean, and are making soybeans an important link between diet and cancer risk. However, as phytoestrogens, they may also stimulate the growth of certain types of breast cancer cells leading to undesirable consequences in certain women.

Objectives

The level of isoflavone consumption will vary for different people so it is important to understand both the genetic and environmental factors that increase or decrease isoflavone concentration in soybean seeds so that the appropriate product can be produced.

Initial studies indicate that a number of environmental factors affect soybean isoflavone content under field conditions. But more controlled studies are required to examine which environmental factors are most important.

This project will study several environmental factors using soybean genotypes with low and high isoflavone levels. These types will be planted in both the US and France to study the effect of maturity, temperature, irrigation, and fungal infection on isoflavone accumulation in field experiments.

Impact

Thrust of the research will be to determine the critical combination of environmental and genetic factors that will allow for the production of soybean seeds with high or low isoflavone levels. Impact will be to develop soybean varieties with both low and high levels of isoflavones so as to offer distinct products to specific human-need markets.