Soybean

Abstract

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill.) is one of the most important oil crops of the world which also has tremendous importance as a food legume. Soy oil finds a variety of uses for domestic and industrial purposes besides its use in several food preparations and animal feed. Having 53% global production share of all oilseed crops, soybean finds an important place in most of the agricultural production systems of major countries including USA, China, Brazil, Argentina and India. It has found an important place in major crop improvement programs and consequently, there has been a considerable increase in its production and productivity over the last two decades. Soybean is a diploidized ancient tetraploid. Though it has a relatively large and complex genome, significant progress has been made towards using methods of genome analysis and molecular cytogenetic tools to elucidate its special function as well as to develop improved cultivars. A number of stable, high-yielding and biotic and abiotic stress resistant varieties have been developed using various traditional and modern crop improvement tools. Definite strides have been made in alien gene introgressions, molecular marker technology, micropropagation, genetic transformation, and marker-assisted breeding. Herbicide-tolerant transgenic soybean has witnessed a huge commercial success and made it a leading biotech crop. At the same time, modification of fatty acid profile of soy oil and improvement in protein content and nutritional quality have established soybean as one of the most viable commercial crop. This chapter discusses soybean as a crop in detail covering all major aspects related to its history and domestication, cytogenetics, breeding behavior, genetic improvement as well as its oil and nutritional quality.