Project Number: 3622-21000-031-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Aug 31, 2008
End Date: Sep 30, 2009

Objective:
The long-term goal of this project is to identify key structural and regulatory genes that impact soybean seed quality traits. 1) Use a functional genomics approach to identify structural and regulatory genes that affect the quality or nutritional content of soybeans; and 2) determine regulatory processes that control gene expression for soybean quality.

Approach:
To reach the over-riding objective of the research a variety of molecular technologies will be employed to assess the genome level aspects of gene expression during the development of soybean that impact seed quality traits. Key regulatory and structural genes will be identified as being associated with critical developmental or environmental predictors for seed quality using the genomic resources available for soybean, including full genome arrays and EST collections, amenable for gene expression analysis. Genes once identified will be functionally assessed in collaborative activities.