Studies on the Biochemical Features of Soybean Seeds for Higher Protein Variety -With Emphasis on Accumulation during Maturation and Electrophoretic Patterns of Proteins-

Some biochemical features of varietal variation in seed protein and their implications for soybean breeding for high protein were pursued employing 86 soybean varieties of Korea, Japan, and the U.S.A. origins. Also, studied comparatively was the temporal pattern of protein components accumulation during seed development characteristic to the high protein variety. Seed protein content of the 86 soybean varieties varied 34.4 to 50.6%. Non-existence of variety having high content of both protein and oil, or high protein content with average oil content as well as high negative correlation between the content of protein and oil (r=-0.73) indicate strongly a great difficulty to breed high protein variety while conserving oil content. The total content of essential amino acids varied 32.82 to 36.63% and the total content of sulfur-containing amino acids varied 2.09 to 2.73% as tested for 12 varieties differing protein content from 40.0 to 50.6%. The content of methionine was positively correlated with the content of glutamic acid, which was the major amino acid (18.5%) in seed protein of soybean. In particular, the varieties Bongeui and Saikai ＃20 had high protein content as well as high content of sulfur-containing amino acids. The content of lysine was negatively correlated with that of isoleucine, but positively correlated with protein content. The content of alanine, valine or leucine was correlated positively with oil content. The seed protein of soybean was built with 12 to 16 components depending on variety as revealed on disc acrylamide gel electrophoresis. The 86 varieties were classified into 11 groups of characteristic electrophoretic pattern. The protein component of Rm=0.14(b) showed the greatest varietal variation among the components in their relative contents, and negative correlation with the content of the other components, while the protein component of Rm=0.06(a) had a significant, positive correlation with protein content. There was sequential phases of rapid decrease, slow increase and stay in the protein content during seed development. Shorter period and lower rate of decrease followed by longer period and higher rate of increase in protein content during seed development was of characteristic to high protein variety together with earlier and continuous development at higher rate of the protein component a. Considering the extremely low methionine content of the protein component a, breeding for high protein content may result in lower quality of soybean protein.n.