Genetically modified (GM) crops have been developed to enhance various agronomic traits and increase the production of functional compounds. In the present study, the major agronomic characteristics of protopanaxadiol (PPD)-enriched GM rice, which was developed by introducing dammarenediol-II synthase (PgDDS) and protopanaxadiol synthase (CYP716A47) genes from Panax ginseng into Oryza sativa cv. Dongjin, were evaluated. The stability of the introduced genes was confirmed using PCR and immunostrip tests, which showed consistent expression across multiple generations (T5-T7). Agronomic traits, including days to heading, culm length, panicle length, tiller number, and grain weight per plant, were compared between GM rice and its non-GM counterpart, Dongjin rice. No significant differences were observed for these traits, indicating that genetic modification did not affect the overall plant growth. However, seed morphology analyses revealed that PPD-enriched GM rice had significantly longer brown rice grains. In contrast, other seed traits remained within the natural range of commercial rice varieties. Furthermore, PPD was consistently detected in GM rice, whereas it was absent in non-GM Dongjin rice. These findings suggest that PPD-enriched GM rice maintains a stable agronomic performance while successfully accumulating PPD, supporting its potential as a functional crop. However, further research is required to evaluate its environmental impact, food safety, and efficacy as a functional food source.

Breeding wheat cultivars with high nitrogen use efficiency is crucial for sustainable agriculture. In this study, 130 durum wheat accessions from 53 countries were cultivated under two nitrogen fertilization levels to investigate variations in agronomic traits and identify accessions suitable for low-nitrogen conditions. Under no nitrogen fertilization, SPAD value (-99.2), flag leaf length (−15.8 mm), grain area (−0.52 mm²), grain length (−0.27 mm), thousand-grain weight (+5.2 g), and grain protein content (−4.2%) showed significant differences compared to that under standard nitrogen fertilization. Among these traits, the SPAD value exhibited a strong positive correlation with protein content in the absence of nitrogen fertilization, suggesting its potential as an indicator for selecting germplasm with superior nitrogen use efficiency. Hierarchical cluster analysis, based on the differences in the six traits under the two nitrogen fertilization levels, classified the 130 durum wheat accessions into three groups (Groups 1, 2, and 3). Accessions in Group 2 exhibited superior adaptability under no nitrogen fertilization compared with those in the other two groups. We identified seven accessions in Group 2 that exhibited minimal decreases in SPAD values and protein content under no nitrogen fertilization for use in wheat breeding programs aimed at developing cultivars with high nitrogen use efficiencies.

The
objective
of this study is to assess the impacts of additional N fertilization on agricultural traits, flour characteristics, and noodle quality of O-free, a variety known for reduced allergy effects. With increasing fertilization rates, both culm length and spike length showed an increase, accompanied by a rise in grain nitrogen removal due to higher protein content in the grains. The leaf area index (LAI) reached its peak during the booting stage, while the canopy LAI peaked at 21 days after flowering (21-DAF). Although LAI of plant was higher in the treatments with additional nitrogen (N1 and N2) compared to the control (N0), there was no significant difference observed in canopy LAI. Chlorophyll fluorescence values were highest at 21-DAF and lowest at 35-DAF, regardless of the fertilizer rate. The dry weight of leaves and stems was highest at 7-DAF in N0 and N1 treatments, but at 21-DAF in N2 treatment. During grain filling, the nitrogen content decreased in leaves and stems, while it increased in the grains. With higher fertilization rates, there was an increase in the moisture content, flour color value, protein content, and sedimentation value of flour, whereas the particle size of flour decreased. Dough extensibility, mixing time, and protein strength showed an increase as the fertilizer rate increased, but dough stability decreased. The control exhibited the highest starch gel stability and aging, while N1 had the lowest starch swelling. Cooked noodles demonstrated increased brightness, thickness, and hardness with increasing fertilizer rate, but elasticity and viscosity showed no significant changes.

In this study, composition and agronomic traits, including yield-related traits, were investigated and compared among 35 Korean landrace germplasm for two years (2019 and 2020). The contents of 12 isoflavones were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography, and agronomic trait data were collected according to the Rural Development Administration criteria. Comparing isoflavone composition between the two years, all isoflavones, except glycitein, were generally higher in 2019. The values of yield-related and major agronomic traits decreased in most accessions in 2020. ANOVA showed highly significant differences (p<0.001) in genotypes, years, and genotype-by-year interaction for all isoflavones, the number of pods per plant, and 100-seed weight. The number of seeds per pod, days to flowering, and days to maturity also showed significant differences among genotypes, as well as between the two years. Correlation analysis revealed that daidzin and genistin were positively correlated with their malonylated form. Malonyl daidzin was also positively correlated with malonyl genistin levels. The accessions with the least variation in the total isoflavone content were IT 153844 (907.5 µg/g, 898.6 µg/g) and IT 252252 (663.2 µg/g, 636.4 µg/g). Some of the evaluated landraces will be a promising genetic source for developing soybean varieties with high levels of environmental stability in isoflavone content and agronomic traits.

Understanding plant morphological and seed characteristics is an essential step for the utilization of genetic resources to improve targeted traits in soybean breeding programs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the agronomic traits and seed pigments of 469 black soybean germplasms with green cotyledons to identify useful resources using multivariate analyses, correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), and cluster analyses. The results showed that the range of flowering days from planting were 37.7-71.5 days, harvesting days from planting were 112.3-153.0 days, plant height was 49.6-151.6 cm, and 100-seed weight was 9.1-49.3 g. According to the correlation analyses with agronomic traits, flowering and harvesting days were positively correlated with the plant height, number of nodes, and number of branches. Additionally, it was found that the chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll content had the greatest effect on the green color of the cotyledon. Based on the PCA, 13 quantitative traits were compressed into three components. The first three principal components accounted for 82.5% of the total variance. In this study, black soybean germplasms with green cotyledons were divided into four clusters by the K-means cluster analysis (non-hierarchical procedure), based on the PCA. The cluster analysis showed that chlorophyll a and plant height had a significant effect on the clustering of the black soybean germplasms used in this study. This study provides opportunities to easily select useful genetic resources for the development of new black soybean cultivars.

Oats are known for their abundance of quality proteins and lipids compared to those of other grain crops; they especially contain a large amount of good quality fibers, including β-glucan. The Korean domestic consumption of oats is rapidly increasing due to their high nutritional value. However, the research for functional food breeding material has been insufficient because oats have been focused on as feed. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the agronomic traits and important nutritional ingredients, including β-glucan, protein, lipid, fiber, and dietary fiber, of 142 oat germplasms from Korea, China, and Japan, which are maintained in the National Agrobiodiversity Center. In addition, the diversity by origin of the germplasms was analyzed based on their agronomic traits. For the agronomic characteristics, Korean oat germplasms were on average headed and matured earlier than the Chinese and Japanese ones. Seven accessions, including IT151107, were matured before mid-June, which makes double cropping possible in the Southern region of Korea. In the diversity analysis by origin based on quantitative agronomic traits, Korean oat germplasms were in the distinguished group compared to Chinese and Japanese germplasms. Oat germplasm had a wider range of main ingredients compared to that of Korean domestic oat cultivars. However, Chinese germplasms had a significantly higher β-glucan content, while Korean germplasms had significantly higher crude protein, crude lipid, and crude fiber contents, than did other germplasms from other origins. Dietary fiber contents showed no significant differences between origins. IT129802 (China), IT166594 (Korea), IT166584 (Korea), IT151108 (Korea), and IT129798 (China) showed the highest β-glucan, protein, lipid, fiber, and dietary fiber contents, respectively. These selected oat germplasms can be superior breeding materials for various functional and agronomic purposes.

Grain yield, agronomic traits, and correlation between genetic distance of 36 F₁ hybrids produced by half-diallel crosses using nine maize inbred lines were analyzed. In the analyses of F₁ hybrids and their mid-parent heterosis (MPH) for agronomic traits, grain yield showed highest MPH value of 156%. One-hundred kernel weight showed the lowest value of 7%. In addition, when genetic distance based on agronomic traits was estimated, parental inbred lines did not agree with their own pedigree. Therefore it had the limitation to estimate genetic distance using agronomic traits. In this study, 92 SSR markers were used to calculate genetic distance at DNA level. However we did not confirm their own pedigree of nine parental inbred lines. There was no correlation between grain yield and SSR markers. Therefore molecular marker selection was conducted in relation with grain yield by the step-by-step method using 92 SSR markers. The selected nine SSR markers showed a significant positive correlation (r²=0.703**) between grain yield and SSR markers. The correlations between the selected SSR markers and agronomic traits of ear length, ear width, plant height, and ear height were particularly showed positively correlated. The nine SSR markers selected in this study would help predicting heterosis and planning crosses for hybrids in maize breeding programs.

One hundred sixty four wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) lines expressing the long spike were developed by the National Institute of Crop Science, Rural Development Administration. Six of 11 genes showed allelic variation among 164 lines and they were highly related to yield traits containing spike and kernel number, kernel length, 1000-kernel weight and grain yield. Analysis of allelic variation of each gene showed high correlation between allelic variation and agricultural characteristics. Coefficient of correlation between culm length and spike length was the highest 0.436. The heading date of the lines expressed Vrn-D1 allele was late and the lines expressed Vrn-D1 allele had longer spike length and higher number of kernel per spike than other lines. There was no significant difference in agronomic characteristics of analysis of Vrn-B1. Ppd-D1b was related to heading date and higher number of spike/m². Ppd-D1a was corresponded to number of kernel per spike and 1000-kernel weight. Three haplotypes, Hap-L, Hap-6A-G and TaCwi-A1a, were related to 1000-kernel weight.