Genetic Diversity of Soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) with Black Seed Coats and Green Cotyledons in Korean Germplasm

Abstract

Soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) with black seed coats and green cotyledons are rich in anthocyanins and chlorophylls known as functional nutrients, antioxidants and compounds with anticarcinogenic properties. Understanding the genetic diversity of germplasm is important to determine effective strategies for improving the economic traits of these soybeans. We aimed to analyze the genetic diversity of 470 soybean accessions by 6K single nucleotide polymorphic loci to determine genetic architecture of the soybeans with black seed coats and green cotyledons. We found soybeans with black seed coats and green cotyledons showed narrow genetic variability in South Korea. The genotypic frequency of the d1d2 and psbM variants for green cotyledon indicated that soybean collections from Korea were intermingled with soybean accessions from Japan and China. Regarding the chlorophyll content, the nuclear gene variant pair d1d2 produced significantly higher chlorophyll a content than that of chloroplast genome psbM variants. Among the soybean accessions in this study, flower color plays an important role in the anthocyanin composition of seed coats. We provide 36 accessions as a core collection representing 99.5% of the genetic diversity from the total accessions used in this study to show potential as useful breeding materials for cultivars with black seed coats and green cotyledons.