Black soybean (Glycine max L.) has been used as a traditional medicine because its seed coat contains various natural phenolic compounds such as anthocyanins. The objective of this study was to reveal the genetic variation in the agricultural traits, phytochemicals, and antioxidant activity of 172 Korean black soybean landraces (KBSLs) and establish a relationship among them. The evaluation of three agricultural traits (days to 50% flowering, maturity, and 100-seed weight), six phytochemicals (delphinidin-3-glucoside, cyaniding-3-glucoside, petunidin-3-glucoside, daidzin, glycitin, and genestin), and four antioxidant activities (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2 -azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)(ABTS), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and the total polyphenol content (TPC) of 172 KBSLs were analyzed in 2012 and 2015. The agricultural traits, phytochemicals, and antioxidant activities of the 172 KBSLs showed wide variation among the accessions and years. In correlation analysis, the agricultural traits and phytochemicals showed positive and negative correlations with phytochemicals and antioxidant activity, respectively. The principal component analyses result indicated that phytochemicals accounted for most of the variability in the KBSLs. In clustering analysis, the 172 KBSLs were classified into four clusters. These results could lead to expanding the knowledge of the agricultural traits, phytochemicals, and antioxidant activity of the KBSLs, which are valuable materials for the development of new soybean varieties.

Low-temperature germinability (LTG) is an important trait for breeding of varieties for use in direct-seeding rice production systems. Although rice (Oryza sativa L.) is generally sensitive to low temperatures, genetic variation for LTG exists and several quantitative trait loci (QTLs) have been reported. Most notably, the gene underlying the major effect QTL qLTG3-1 has been cloned and implicated in tissue weakening. The objective of this study was to develop molecular markers for use in selecting rice

Buckwheat is an important grain crop known for its nutritional value and content of bioactive compounds, particularly rutin. In this study, we characterized diverse Fagopyrum esculentum Moench germplasm for the diversity of agro-morphological characteristics and the rutin and quercetin content in seeds under the spring cultivation. Of the 251 germplasm accessions assessed, 193 had red stems, 182 had a pale brown seed coat color, and 238 had ovate seeds. The times taken to reach 50% flowering and 80% maturity ranged from 38-45 to 73-95 days, respectively. The 1000-seed weight (TSW) varied from 21 to 42 g. Overall, the content of rutin and quercetin ranged from 7.22-47.86 to 0-1.22 mg/100 g DW, respectively. The number of days to flowering and maturity showed negative correlations with TSW and rutin and quercetin content. However, we found that at 73-80 days after sowing, early-maturing germplasm had significantly higher mean rutin content than either intermediate-or late-maturing germplasm.The TSW weight showed a positive correlation with the content of rutin and quercetin. We identified promising accessions based early maturity (\ 80 days), higher seed weight (C 35 g) and higher content of rutin (C 35 mg/100 g DW) and quercetin (C 1 mg/100 g DW). These accessions will help to enhance grain yield and the rutin and quercetin content in existing buckwheat cultivars for spring cultivation.

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Preharvest sprouting (PHS) in rice panicles is an important quantitative trait that causes both yield losses and the deterioration of grain quality under unpredictable moisture conditions at the ripening stage. However, the molecular mechanism underlying PHS has not yet been elucidated. Here, we explored the genetic loci associated with PHS in rice and formulated a model regression equation for rapid screening for use in breeding programs. After re-sequencing 21 representative accessions for PHS and performing enrichment analysis, we found that approximately 20,000 SNPs revealed distinct allelic distributions between PHS resistant and susceptible accessions. Of these, 39 candidate SNP loci were selected, including previously reported QTLs. We analyzed the genotypes of 144 rice accessions to determine the association between PHS and the 39 candidate SNP loci, 10 of which were identified as significantly affecting PHS based on allele type. Based on the allele types of the SNP loci, we constructed a regression equation for evaluating PHS, accounting for an R 2 value of 0.401 in japonica rice. We validated this equation using additional accessions, which exhibited a significant R 2 value of 0.430 between the predicted values and actual measurements. The newly detected SNP loci and the model equation could facilitate marker-assisted selection to predict PHS in rice germplasm and breeding lines.