• Soybeans and soybean byproducts are frequently found in human diets and
animal feeds. In addition to providing essential nutrients, soybeans contain non-nutrient compounds, including isoflavones. Isoflavones have largely been
described as compounds beneficial to health.
• Recently, soybean isoflavones have been attracting the attention of livestock
industries due to their potential role in increasing growth and improving animal
health.
• There is an opportunity to improve soybean isoflavone profile that would profit
soybean producers, including the development of value-added soybean varieties
with high isoflavone content.
• The long-term goal of this work is to contribute to the development of
soybeans with enhanced isoflavone quality, or value-added specialty soybeans
that can be used as a source of health bioactive compounds. For this project
phase, the objectives are to 1) Assess the variation in isoflavones’ content
associated with environmental conditions using a greenhouse setting, and 2)
Integrate the new information with the information gathered in the previous year
of the project. In the previous year, the objectives were to “Characterize the
isoflavone content of available germplasm material, as well as the isoflavone
content of selected soybean lines bred for use in Virginia”, and to “Investigate
the association of isoflavone content with other economically important
agronomic traits”.
• The results gathered in this project will be important for developing soybean
varieties with enhanced isoflavone profile that could provide a direct benefit to
Virginia’s soybean producers.

The long-term goal of this work is to contribute to the development of soybeans
with enhanced isoflavone quality, or value-added specialty soybeans that can be
used as a source of health bioactive compounds. For this project phase, the
objectives are to 1) Assess the variation in isoflavones’ content associated with
environmental conditions using a greenhouse setting, and 2) Integrate the new
information with the information gathered in the previous year of the project.
The specific objectives for the overall project are to
• Characterize the profile of isoflavones of a core set of wild soybean accessions
from the USDA germplasm collection.
• Investigate the association of isoflavones’ content with agronomic data
available for the soybean accessions used in Objective 1.
• Characterize isoflavone profile of select soybean lines developed for use in
Virginia.
• Assess the variation in isoflavones’ content associated with environmental
conditions using a greenhouse setting.

This project is expected to
• Collect information about isoflavone content of a set of soybean accessions
that can be used as source of genetic material to breed soybeans with enhanced
isoflavone profiles. Because there is existing data related to the agronomic traits
of these soybean accessions, this new information could be readily used by
soybean breeders.
• Rank soybean accessions that can be used as source of genetic material by
highest to lowest isoflavone content and use the top 25% to assess the variation
of isoflavone content associated with environmental conditions.
• Provide information about isoflavone content of selected soybean lines
developed for use in Virginia. By including soybean breeders with active
breeding programs in Virginia in the project team, the information gathered in
this project will be promptly available for these breeding efforts.
• Provide opportunities for undergraduate experiential learning and graduate
student training.
• Disseminate results through communications in meetings and scientific
publications.