Soybean Systems Biology Program

In 2007, soybean accounted for 56 percent of the world's oilseed production, this nitrogen-fixing legume crop offers the dual benefit of a seed high in protein and oil with room for improvement. Soybean not only represents 70 percent of the world's edible protein, is also an emerging use of raw materials for the production of biodiesel. Soybeans in the United States took second place as agricultural commodities, and is the largest U.S. agricultural export item.
Soybean genome is comparatively large, approximately 1,112 MB; a diploidized tetraploid, the product of two genome duplications that occurred 8-10 MYA and 40-50 MYA; extensively segmented and reshuffled; and, 64 percent euchromatic and 36 percent heterochromatic. The large-scale shotgun DNA sequencing project began in the middle of 2006 and was completed in 2008. A total of about 13 million shotgun reads have been produced. Approximately 975Mb is captured in 20 chromosomes. Research indicates soybeans have as many as 66,000 genes about half the number identified in the human genome sequence.
The current assembly (representing 7.23x coverage) are referred to as "Glyma0". Glyma0 is a preliminary release, based on a partial dataset. "Glyma1" version is based on chromosome-scale dataset released at the end of 2008.
DOE JGI's interest in sequencing the soybean stems from its role as a principal source of biodiesel, a renewable, alternative fuel with the highest energy content of any alternative fuel. According to 2007 U.S. Census data, soybean is estimated to be responsible for more than 80 percent of biodiesel production.
Detailed knowledge of the soybean genetic code will enable crop improvements for more effective application of this plant for clean bioenergy generation. Knowing which genes control specific traits, researchers are able to change the type, quantity, and/or location of oil produced by the crop. Through utilization of the sequence information generated by DOE JGI, it may be possible to develop a customized biomass production platform for combining oil seed production for biodiesel with enhanced vegetative growth for ethanol conversion--doubling the energy output of the crop. In 2004, over 3.1 billion bushels of soybeans were grown on nearly 75 million acres in the US, with an estimated annual value exceeding $17 billion--second only to corn, and about twice that of wheat.