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Title: Environmental and genetic variation of soflavone content under Brazil growing conditions

Author
item CARRAO-PANIZZI, MERCEDES - EMBRAPA SOYBEAN
item Berhow, Mark
item MANDARINO, JOSE - EMBRAPA SOYBEAN
item NEVES DE OLIVEIRA, MARIA - EMBRAPA SOYBEAN

Submitted to: Brazilian Journal of Agricultural Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/14/2009
Publication Date: 1/27/2010
Citation: Carrao-Panizzi, M.C., Berhow, M.A., Mandarino, J.M., Neves De Oliveira, M.C. 2009. Environmental and genetic variation of soflavone content under Brazil growing conditions. Brazilian Journal of Agricultural Research (Pesq. Agropec. Bras. PAB). 44:1444-1451.

Interpretive Summary: Isoflavones are an important nutraceutical component of soybeans that have been characterized as having anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-heart disease activities. The isoflavone content seems to vary considerably from cultivar to cultivar, from year to year, and from location to location, but this has not been studied to a consistent degree. Soybean production in Brazil offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the effect of growing up to 233 different soybean cultivars in different locations that had a wide a range of latitudes (32 degrees South to 5 degrees North) and under different moisture and temperature growing conditions. This study shows that the isoflavones vary considerably in cultivars grown in the same locations and they can be classified as either high isoflavone cultivars or low isoflavone cultivars. The data on growing the high and low cultivars in different locations indicates that higher temperatures and lower rainfall amounts will generally result in lower isoflavone contents in all cultivars examined. This information can be used to select soybean cultivars and growing locations that have constantly higher overall isoflavone concentrations for production of higher value soybeans used for nutraceutical products.

Technical Abstract: To examine and determine differences in isoflavone content among several Brazilian soybean cultivars grown in a range of locations and environmental conditions, 233 genotypes were evaluated and a range of 12 mg/100g (cv. Embrapa 48) to 461mg/100g (cv. CS 305) of total isoflavone content was observed. Differences among genotypes could be due to genetic effects, since all 233 cultivars were grown and collected in the Ponta Grossa location in 2002. In Brazil, soybean crops are grown in a wide range of environments between 32°S to 5°N latitude. These diverse growing locations and conditions can be used to facilitate studies about the effect of the environment on isoflavone content of soybean seeds.