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Soybean is an economically important oilseed crop with diverse uses as food, feed, biofuel and so forth. Although the demand for soybean is growing rapidly worldwide, the narrow genetic base of released cultivars due to meagre utilisation of available wild and untapped genetic resources is a major factor contributing to stagnant production and productivity levels of soybean. Considering the continuously increasing global population, changing dietary habits, ongoing climatic fluctuations, rapidly evolving biotic stresses and shrinking land and water resources, utilisation of novel and diverse sources of variation is required for the genetic enhancement of soybean. To widen the genetic base of commercial soybean cultivars and to improve the genetic gain of the crop focused and systematic pre‐breeding efforts can play a game‐changing role by supplying novel genes in crop improvement programs. This article discusses the rationale of tapping wild and untapped genetic resources of soybean, gene pools, soybean genetic resources conserved ex‐situ and its utilisation status, genetic base of commercial soybean cultivars, identified novel genes and genomic regions in wild genetic resources, pre‐breeding efforts in India and strategies for incorporating desirable traits in the elite cultivated gene pool for fulfilling the requirements of farmers and other end‐users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soybean is a major source of vegetable oil and protein worldwide. Globally, India is among the top five producers where soybean is a major oilseed grown under diverse agro-climatic conditions by small and marginal farmers. The present study aims to identify soybean varieties with higher yield levels, resistance to pestdiseases and adaptability to climatic fluctuations. One hundred and twenty-five (125) indigenous and exotic soybean germplasm accessions and five checks were evaluated and characterized for eight agro-morphological traits at five testing locations and also screened for frog-eye leaf spot (FLS) and yellow mosaic virus (YMV) diseases under hot-spot locations during the rainy season. A wide range of variability was observed among accessions for days to 50% flowering (39–59), plant height (41–111 cm), number of nodes/plant (10–30), pod clusters/plant (14–39), number of pods/plant (40–102), days to maturity (96–115), grain yield/plant (4.89–16.54 g) and 100-seed weight (6.02–13.72 g). Among various traits, 100-seed weight (0.45), number of pods/plant (0.60) and number of pod clusters/plant (0.38) were found to be major yield-contributing traits as they exhibited highly significant correlation with grain yield/plant. Principal components PCI and PCII with eigen value >1 accounted for 42.66 and 27.08% of the total variation, respectively. Accessions G24 (EC 393222) from Taiwan and G40 (IMP-1) from the USA belonging to cluster IV were found promising for multiple yield traits and JS 20–38 from cluster III for earliness as per cluster analysis. GGE biplot average environment coordination (AEC) view revealed that the accessions viz., G11 (EC 333872), G2 (EC 251506) and G47 (TNAU-S-55) were the best performing stable genotypes in terms of grain yield/plant across locations. Twelve accessions had a high level of resistance against both FLS and YMV diseases under natural hot-spot conditions which can be utilized as promising donors in the soybean breeding programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Eight pulses comprising of five common pulses viz., rajma (kidney beans), cowpea (white), cowpea (black), lentil, chickpea and three lesser-known pulses viz., rice bean, horse gram, soybean (black) from Northwestern Himalaya were analyzed for nutritional factors viz. protein, lipid, sugars, tryptophan, starch, antinutritional factors viz., phytic acid, tannins, trypsin inhibitors), antioxidant metabolites and activities viz., Gallic acid, DPPH, ABTS, TAA, FRAP and fatty acid composition. Results showed that horse gram and lentil had higher free radical scavenging and antioxidant activities. Studied pulse oil contained higher concentration of unsaturated fatty acids. PCA revealed that oleic acid, DPPH, ABTS, O/L ratio, antioxidant activities, gallic acid and tannins have positive correlation. Results of the present study showed that, studied lesser-known pulses were at par in nutritional quality with commonly grown pulses and these pulses may acts as a potential source of edible as well as good source of nutrition for livestock and human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bhat (black soybean) under the genus Glycine, is cultivated for food, fodder and medicinal uses by rural communities in Asia particularly, in China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and India. In the Himalayan region of India, this legume is not only an integral part of a climate resilient farming system but also finds place in ethnodietary recipes and fondly consumed as a pulse. Black soybean ensures both food and nutritional security in hills where nutritional deficiencies are in abundance among rural, tribal and backward population engaged in subsistence farming in marginal rainfed terrains. Cultivation of black soybean is less capital intensive. Its ability to survive under harsh conditions particularly, in the event of failure of rain, makes it a better choice than other competitive crops grown during rainy season. Despite its enormous potentials, the legume has not gained the popularity in India and presently, area under this valuable legume is confined to North Himalayan hill region and scattered pockets of central India. Its high nutritive value, remedial and health promoting effects due to presence of various bioactive compounds make this legume an excellent functional food. Present review summarises the potential role of black soybean for human nutrition and health benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present investigation, twenty two elite breeding lines of black seeded soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] were evaluated for 14 agro morphological traits during Kharif 2012 season. Among qualitative traits, presence of multifoliate leaf type was observed only in lines having moderate to high hundred seed weight and presence of anthocyanin pigment on hypocotyl was found related to violet flower colour in black seeded soybean lines. Among quantitative traits, grain yield per plant showed highly significant positive phenotypic and genotypic correlation with traits viz., dry matter weight per plant (0.95& 1.0) followed by 100 seed weight (0.75 & 0.87) and number of pods per plant (0.52 & 0.50). Path coefficient analysis also confirmed that traits viz., dry matter weight per plant and 100 seeds weight along with days to maturity can be considered as the key traits that can play a crucial role in the genetic improvement of black seeded soybean (bhat) genotypes for Uttarakhand hills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic divergence was studied for yield and different yield contributing traits in 282 black soybean accessions collected from different eco geographic regions of the world. Based on non-hierarchical euclidean cluster analysis all accessions were grouped into 9 clusters. The first four principle component axes (PCA) accounted for 70.28% of total variance. Minimum mean value for days to 50% flowering (46), plant height (82.75 cm) and days to maturity (121) were obtained in cluster I. So this cluster can be very useful to develop early maturing genotypes. Cluster IX contained eight accessions showed maximum mean value for pod length (4.26 cm), 100 seed weight (14.87 g) and seed yield per plant (8.09 g). So, from yield point of view, this cluster can be used to develop high yielding as well as high grain weight genotypes. Inter cluster distance was found maximum between cluster IV and IX (6.39). Hence genotypes from these clusters can be used in hybridization to get desirable recombinants. Accessions VBS 25, VBS 48 from cluster VII and VBS161, VBS152 from cluster VIII found as exceptionally superior donor which can be used in multiple crossing programmes to get transgressive segregants for desirable traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]