GWAS study of color and texture on natto soybeans

Abstract

Soybeans are an essential component to the contemporary Japanese diet. Natto is a Japanese dish made by fermenting soybeans, and the physical properties of the unprocessed soybeans will affect the natto produced. Pale yellow soybeans that are slightly firm in texture are preferred. The genetic improvement of these qualities is achieved through breeding. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) is an important tool for soybean breeding and can be used to associate genomes with a certain genotype. Color and texture are the selected phenotypes in this study and a GWAS program was ran to associate the genotype markers with the phenotypes. None of the markers in the study reached the threshold of significance and therefore are not considered to be associated with one of the phenotypes. Further research is necessary.