Location: Soybean and Nitrogen Fixation Research
Project Number: 6070-21220-070-033-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2023
End Date: Oct 1, 2025
Objective:
The Soybean and Nitrogen Fixation Research Unit in Raleigh NC is proposing a collaboration with NC State University to screen genetically diverse high-yielding soybean germplasm for novel functional protein useful to the sustainable protein market. Our unit has a history of breeding with widely diverse germplasm including G. soja and releasing high-yielding germplasm derived from these accessions. We have advanced germplasm derived from genetically diverse accessions that yield well and are high in seed protein and want a collaborator to extend the evaluation of selected germplasm to identify new protein functionalities that make these accessions more useful to the plant protein food market. This collaboration will result in analyses of germplasm that we do not have the expertise or equipment to accomplish.
Approach:
1. Identify best method for protein isolation for downstream analyses
2. Generate publishable data for the following properties and functionalities of concentrated or isolated soybean protein.
a. Protein content
b. Solubility and other physicochemical stability related properties (e.g. particle size)
c. Thermal stability related properties (e.g. protein denature temperature or enthalpy)
3. Evaluate the functional properties of 20 genetically diverse high-yielding soybean lines.
a. Determine if environment affect protein functionality by measuring functional properties of protein derived from the same line grown in two or three environments.
b. Determine if functional properties are affected by age of soybean seed by comparing proteins derived from seeds of the same genotype harvested in 2019 and 2022.
