Production and Processing of Vegetable Soybean (Edamame)

Non-Technical Summary: Farmers across the United States are facing serious economic crisis due to stiff competition from overseas where cost of production is lower and in some cases, American produce could not penetrate overseas markets as a result of the protection policies of some countries. The economic problem is more pronounced among farmers with a mono culture cropping system. Vegetable soybean is one of the potential crops that can bring economic benefits to farmers. It is also called edible soybean, sweet bean, and edamame. It is a popular food in Asia and has great potential for health-conscious consumers in the U.S. Some of these health claims were recently corroborated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Green soybean is imported into the U.S. to meet the market for Oriental specialty food products and the increasing number of health conscious individuals. The proposed research is expected to facilitate commercial production of soybean cultivars that would be suitable for manufacture of nutritious and palatable soybean products. The proposed research will also establish a network of personnel from research, extension, academia, soybean production, and industry. This would be useful for future cooperation to enhance US agriculture. <P> Approach: Objective (1) To develop, evaluate, and identify vegetable soybean cultivars with high seed yield, desirable agronomic traits and nutritional values. Several breeding lines with large seed size, high seed yield, and with different maturity groups have been developed at VSU/ARS. These elite breeding lines and standard checks are under evaluation in replicated trials at the VSU Research Farm for (i) yield and agronomic traits, and (ii) nutritional values - protein, oil, individual sugars, and fatty acid profiles. Potential lines will be selected. The selected lines will be further tested in Mid Atlantic regions, Southern State Institutional Experimental Research Stations groups. Objective (2) Generation advancement and evaluation of progenies. These are progenies from F1 through F5 received from Dr. Thomas Devine, USDA/ARS, Beltsville, Maryland will be planted at VSU research farm and advanced to subsequent generations through single pod descent. Objective (3) Isolation of soybean pod-shattering genes and development of gene-based marker for marker assisted selection (MAS). Pod-shattering genes from soybean will be isolated and characterized by comparative and bioinformatics analysis in order to develop gene-based markers for each gene. This will provide a means for pyramiding genes controlling pod shattering by MAS to: 3a) identify and clone the genes controlling pod-shattering in soybean; and 3b) characterize functional pod-shattering genes in Arabidopsis; and 3c) develop gene-based markers in soybean for marker assisted selection (4) Processing and Shelf-life Evaluation - In this part of the study we will examine the minimum thermal processing time that is required to ensure product safety. The green pods will be shelled and seeds will be inoculated with various food borne pathogens to simulate worst contamination scenarios. Based on the pathogen survival rates on the seeds, minimum cooking times and temperatures for ensuring food safety will be recommended. Additionally, microbiological shelf-life evaluations will be conducted on cooked and uncooked vegetable soybean seeds at various holding temperatures to simulate commercial and household conditions.