Salt stress is a major abiotic factor that limits wheat production worldwide. However, this threat is increasing significantly because soil salinity affects approximately 20% of the irrigated agricultural land globally, leading to significant yield losses by impairing plant growth and photosynthetic efficiency. This study aimed to identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with salt tolerance in wheat core collections during the heading stage under saline stress conditions. Chlorophyll content, a physiological indicator of salt tolerance at heading, and soil electrical conductivity (EC) were measured in 609 accessions and a Salt Tolerance Index (STI) was subsequently constructed. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed using a 35 K SNP chip to identify significant marker-trait associations. Three models (MLM, FarmCPU, and BLINK) were employed for the GWAS, with FarmCPU and BLINK demonstrating superior power over the MLM in controlling false positives. GWAS results revealed four significant SNPs (AX-94929101, AX- 94615611, AX-94510535, and AX-94411611) located on chromosomes 3D, 5D, and 7D. AX-94510535 exhibited significant phenotypic differences based on SNP genotype, suggesting its potential as a marker for STI. Furthermore, the identified candidate genes, TraesCS3D02G218100, TraesCS5D02G059500, and TraesCS5D02G175000, were implicated in biological processes such as DNA replication, cell death, and photosynthesis.

Preserving and utilizing genetic diversity is crucial in crop breeding to address unpredictable situations such as climate change and evolving consumer demands. It serves as a source of new traits and alleles. Core collections are established from approximately 10-20% of conserved resources, and they are not only used for efficient management of genetic resources in seed banks but also applied in crop improvement programs and new gene discovery. These core collections demonstrate diversity based on the geographic origin of genetic resources and provide information on genetic similarity among resource types and collection regions. Recent advances in high-throughput genotyping has enabled high-resolution association mapping, allowing for the precise discovery of new genes and QTLs. The wheat genetic diversity and population structure of core collections are important in determining appropriate GWAS statistical methods for detecting these novel genes and QTLs. To maximize their utility, collecting detailed phenotypic data is crucial. This will expand their application in gene discovery, marker development, and more. In this study, we provided reviews for wheat core collection in the world to face the digital breeding era, where precise gene detection and manipulation are possible. The accumulation of genetic diversity, and phenotypic and genotypic information by core collections will contribute to breeding cycle acceleration and trait selection optimization.

To compare agronomic and seed traits of 135 common bean landraces originating from Korea, Bulgaria, and El Salvador, we evaluated 20 morphological traits and performed principal component analysis (PCA). In the PCA, the first and second principal components accounted for 55.15% and 15.97% of the total variance, respectively. The first component showed a strong positive correlation with seed size and 100-seed weight, whereas the second component produced a strong negative correlation with days to flowering and days to maturity, indicating that these traits may explain the differences between landraces originating from different countries. Landraces from Korea showed higher variation in days to flowering and days to maturity; those from Bulgaria produced larger and heavier seeds; those from El Salvador produced smaller and lighter seeds and flowering and maturity occurred earlier. In addition, the landraces from El Salvador had relatively lower diversity compared to those from other countries, as they were grouped within a small cluster in the PCA. These evaluation results may provide important information for selecting breeding materials, and diversity analyses of landraces from different countries provide information for securing genetic resources.

In this study, watermelon accessions introduced from the USDA were characterized for 12 morphological characteristics of leaf, flower, fruit, and seed, according to the National Agrobiodiversity Center descriptor list. In addition, to confirm the genetic composition of each watermelon accession, genetic profiling was performed using 20 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A total of 154 watermelon accessions from the USDA were collected from 31 different countries, among which, 12.3% (19 accessions) were from Turkey. Morphological characterization revealed that the accessions displayed a large diversity. Genetic profiling using 20 SSR markers showed that six accessions (K192117, K192028, K193400, K192376, K192499, and K192800) were expected to be inbred lines among the 154 watermelon accessions. The 12 characters scored were analyzed using discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC). The result revealed 68.1% of the total variability and indicated variations among accessions, mainly based on fruit stripes and fruit shape along the longitudinal section. The accessions were divided into eight groups according to DAPC, although the geographical origin was not a great source for the grouping. Our results will be helpful for the efficient management of germplasms and in understanding and selecting watermelon accessions for the breeding process.

A statistical analysis of 9,771 non-glutinous rice in breeding line germplasm collected from Korea (2,836), China (2,136), Japan (1,219), and the Philippines (1,213) was conducted using normal distribution, variability index value (VIV), analysis of variation (ANOVA) and Ducan’s multiple range test (DMRT) based on the data obtained from NIRS analysis. According to the normal distribution, the average protein content was 7.9%, and non-glutinous rice ranging over 10% amylose had 23.6% average content. Most resources were between 5.3 and 10.5% in protein content, and 15.7 and 31.5% in amylose content. The VIV was 0.54 for protein, and 0.83 for amylose. The average amylose content was 25.18%, 24.54%, 22.08%, and 21.47% in Filipino, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese resources, respectively, wheereas the average protein content was found to be 8.19%, 7.79%, 7.58%, and 7.42% in Filipino, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese resources, respectively. The ANOVA of amylose and protein content showed significant differences at the level of 0.01. The F-test value was 412.2 for amylose content, and 108.4 for protein when compared with the critical value of 3.78. The DMRT of amylose and protein content showed significant differences (p<0.01) among resources from different countries. The Filipino resources had the highest level of amylose and protein content, whereas; the lowest level of amylose and protein content were found in Japanese when compared with resources of other origins. These results are recommended as helpful materials in the field of breeding.

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.

This study was carried out to investigate the utilization value of legume crops collected in tropical and subtropical areas. We examined agronomic traits to assess domestic adaptability and evaluated useful components of foreign legumes. We used a total of 201 genetic resources of three legumes, consisting of 68 lentils, 72 chickpeas and 61 guars. The average number of days to flowering of the three legumes ranged from 56.7 to 60.8 days; the shortest in guar and longest in chickpea. The average number of days to growth of the three legumes ranged from the shortest 86.8 days in lentil, to the longest 163.9 days in guar. The maturation period of the three legumes lasted from the end of May until mid-September, based on sowing in March. However, the average yield of lentil was very low, ranging from 0.5 g to 30.6 g, with an average 16.4 g based on 10 plants per accession. The average 100 seed weight of the three legumes was 2.2 g for lentil, 22.9 g for chickpea, and 3.8 g for guar. The crude protein content ranged from 14.1% to 32.4% with an average of 20.4%, the highest for guar and the lowest for chickpea. The average crude oil content in the three legume crops was generally low, ranging from 0.8% in lentil, to 4.3% in chickpea. The average dietary fiber content in the three legume crops varied from 15.7% to 50.7%. Guar was the highest source of fiber, followed by chickpea (19.3%) and lentil (15.7%). From the agricultural traits analysis, chickpea and guar could grow domestically. However, lentil was difficult to flower and fruit normally during the warmer season after May. Therefore, lentil should be considered for late summer cropping during the cool season. The physicochemical properties of the three legumes seem to be useful as they are similar to, or better than, those of the control common bean.

This study was investigated to develop mass evaluation system for the contents of crude protein, oil and fatty acid in soybean germplasm using NIRS. NIRS equations were created with 345 soybeans, multiple correlation coefficients of crude protein, oil, palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid between data obtained from NIRS and quantitative analysis were 0.983, 0.969, 0.592, 0.514, 0.978, 0.961 and 0.957, respectively. Equation statistics indicated that contents of crude protein, oil and unsaturated fatty acid except palmitic and stearic acid in soybean seed were suitable for determination by NIRS. Those NIRS equations were applied to examine crude protein, oil and unsaturated fatty acid of 854 soybean landraces from Korea. The average contents and ranges of crude protein and oil were 39.2% with a range of 33.7-47.0% and 15.0% with a range of 9.8-20.3%, individually. In addition, those of oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid were 21.4% with a range of 12.1-30.2%, 55.6% with a 47.8-62.3% and 8.1% with a range of 5.9-10.7% respectively. We conducted quantitative analysis to reconfirm with IT154552 (45.1%) and IT023955(46.9%) above 45% of crude protein, the results were similar from NIRS (45.2%, 47.0%). NIRS data for protein from this study made no difference with lab data, which would be useful for mass evaluation. There was negative correlation (-0.203) between crude protein and oil, positive correlation (0.379) between crude oil and oleic acid, and significantly negative correlation (-0.879) between oleic and linoleic acid.

This study is to raise the utilization of genetic resources of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) landrace from East Asia (Korea, Japan, and China) by evaluating genetic variation related to end use quality concerned to bread making quality and early maturity, two very important characteristics of Korean wheat cropping system. To clarify the allelic variation of Glu-1 loci which decides HMW glutenin subunit composition, SDS-PAGE and DNA marker analysis were conducted by using 485 East Asian landrace wheat accessions in National Agrobiodiversity Center, RDA and NIAS genebank. And useful accessions getting full mark of glu-1 score and early maturity were selected to enhance the utilization of genetic resources to Korean wheat breeding.

In this study, wheats from China showed the distinct characteristic. Whereas Glu-A1c (null) and Glu-B1b (7+8) allele are the most frequent in Korean and Japanese accessions, Glu-A1a (2^*) and Glu-B1c (7^*+9) are the most in Chinese accessions. When it comes to unique composition, Glu-B1f (13+16) and Glu-D1e (2+10) subunits are only in Chinese resources. Glu-B1d (6+8), Glu-B1e (20), Glu-D1b (7+8), and Glu-D1c (4+1) subunits are only in Korean resources. The accessions from China also has high PIC value (0.53) compared to ones from Korea (0.35) and Japan (0.35). Grouping by UPGMA analysis of combination of Glu-1 allele, most accessions from Korea and Japan are in the same group, but most Chinese ones were distinguished as the distinctive group. The evaluation of bread baking quality by Glu-1 scoring system, 26 accessions got full marks. Among them, 16 accessions from China were also matured before early June, suitable to Korean cropping system. Especially, 3 accessions (K151847, K151865, K151962) had very early maturity, matured in late May. These genetic resources, having good gluten composition and early maturity, are expected to widely be used for Korean wheat breeding.

This study was conducted to compare the agricultural characteristics of total 444 common bean accessions from Korea (296), China (76), and El Salvador (72). Days to flowering were ranged from 41 to 83 days with an average of 61 days. Days to sowing to maturing were ranged from 86 to 143 days with an average of 104 days. Common beans from El Salvador tend to bloom and mature 3 to 7 days earlier than Korea and China accessions. In growth habit, over 50% of Korea and China accessions were indeterminate and climbing type, but 90.1% from El Salvador were Semi-determinate and climbing type. Qualitative traits were much different among three countries. Eighty-two percentage of immature pod colors were dark pink from El Salvador, but many of those were pale yellow from Korea (77.6%) and China (61.8%). Seed shapes were divided into four types of round, oval, cubic and kidney type, and the highest percentage of those were 30.4% with kidney type. The highest of those was 36.6% with oval type from Korea, 55.3% with kidney type from China and 79.2% with cubic type from El Salvador. Morphological characteristics of common bean from El Salvador were much different from those of Korea and China, which is necessary to collect more germplasm from its native and expand genetic diversity of common beans. Four hundred thirty-five common beans from Korea, China and El Salvador were analyzed using SSR markers. Ninety-two alleles were detected with a lowest of 6 at the BM161, BM181 and a highest of 18 at the BM154, BM160. The average polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.72. To similar with population size among three countries, 292 Korean accessions divided four replications with 73 accessions. As a result genetic diversity was the highest of 0.73 in Chinese populations, while the lowest of 0.48 in El Salvador populations.