Insight into soybean could help green crops

Soybean is a remarkable plant, not only a protein rich food crop, but also usable in manifold industrial applications, such as the production of biofuel, emulsifiers, paints and even lipstick.

But soybean is also surprisingly green; it has an uncanny ability to suck up nitrogen from the environment, obviating the need for expensive nitrogen fertilisers.

Now, University of Queensland researcher, Professor Peter Gresshoff, is off to China to investigate soybean's genetics as a recipient of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences Senior International Scientist Professorial fellowship.

Gresshoff will specifically be looking at the molecular genetics of the nitrogen fixation process that makes soybean so unique.

“I will focus on soybean, as we have done a lot of critical work in Brisbane on this species, and it is an important global crop plant,” said Gresshoff.

“China is the number one importer of soybean and is also the fourth largest soybean producer, but its yields are low.

“Biotechnology, microbiology and soil science can help as they did in Brazil over the last 20 years.”

Professor Gresshoff is director of UQ's Australian Research Council Centre for Integrative Legume Research.

His collaborator, Professor Luo, is an eminent scientist and pioneer in the field of floral structure control.

The duo has already published in Plant Physiology on the genes in the model legume Lotus japonicus.