Image-based digitalization of germplasm stock holds significant promise for accelerating plant breeding and crop improvement. This technology facilitates efficient germplasm characterization, evaluation, and management through the capture and analysis of visual phenotypes. However, widespread adoption is hindered by challenges that include image quality control, data analysis complexity, and phenotypic representation limitations. This study investigated these constraints and proposed strategies to address them. By managing technical challenges, refining phenotypic data extraction, and developing robust data analysis pipelines, researchers can fully leverage image-based digitalization to enhance germplasm utilization and contribute to sustainable agriculture.

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.

In this study, genotype analysis was conducted using the Fluidigm system with 13 SNP markers related to anthracnose, powdery mildew, phytophthora root rot, cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), potyvirus, and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) resistance. A total of 25,350 data points were obtained, 8.2% of which indicated resistance genotypes. Resources having perfect resistance genotype to each disease-related molecular marker set were 58 accessions for anthracnose, 57 for powdery mildew, 246 for phytophthora root rot, and 765 for CMV. There was no resource having a perfect resistance genotype of all three potyvirus-related molecular SNP markers including pvr1, pvr2 (123457), and pvr2 (689). Thirty-seven accessions for pvr1, 349 accessions for pvr2 (123457), and 23 accessions for pvr2 (689) were identified as resources with resistance genotype. No resource with the TMV-resistance genotype was found in this study. The resources with complex resistance genotypes of anthracnose and powdery mildew were 55 accessions, and they were mainly Capsicum baccatum. Among these, seven accessions had a three-disease combined resistance genotype with phytophthora root rot. Thirty-six accessions, 16 accessions, and nine accessions each had resistance genotypes of the three potyvirus-related markers. These resources also had CMV and phytophthora root rot resistance genotypes, and they were mainly Capsicum chinense. The statistical analysis considering the evaluated resistance genotypes, revealed that the anthracnose resistance genotype showed a tendency to be linked with powdery mildew resistance genotype. The potyvirus-related marker pvr1 was positively correlated with Phytophthora root rot markers.

To better understand the morphological variation in the 189 accessions of cultivated var. frutescens of Perilla crop preserved at the RDA-Genebank in South Korea, morphological characteristics were investigated using seven traits related to leaf quality. In the principal component analysis (PCA), the first and second principal components accounted for 28.9% and 19.7% of the total variance, respectively. In the first component, leaf color (QL1) and stem color (QL3) contributed positively, whereas the flowering period (QL5) and degree of pubescence (QL6) contributed in a negative manner. In the second component, QL5 and QL6 contributed positively, whereas the fragrance of plants (QL7) contributed negatively. The results of PCA showed that the 189 Perilla accessions were clearly divided into three groups based on the 1st axis (X-axis), except for some accessions. However, the Perilla accessions collected in South Korea and abroad did not show a clear geographical distribution between the collection areas. Correlation analysis among the seven traits of 189 Perilla accessions showed a positive correlation coefficient for the combination of QL1 and QL3, and QL5 and QL6, and a negative correlation for the combination of color of the reverse side of the leaf and QL6, and QL5 and QL7. Therefore, the results of this study will provide useful information for the selection of useful resources for the development of leafy vegetable varieties of the Perilla crop and the preservation and management of genetic resources of the Perilla crop preserved at the RDA-Genebank in South Korea.

The color and functionality of paprika fruits (Capsicum annuum L.) are important factors that determine consumption preferences. Paprika contains a large amount of functional phytochemicals, such as carotenoids and polyphenols. In this study, the total polyphenol content by total phenol content (TPC) assay, antioxidant activity by 2,2’-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and total red pigment content by American spice trade association (ASTA) color were evaluated in a total of 93 commercial cultivars and germplasms of red paprika. In results, the total polyphenol content, antioxidant activity by ABTS and FRAP, and total red pigment content ranged from 6.35-11.84 mg GAE⋅g^-1 dry weight (DW), 19.80-44.84 mg trolox⋅g^-1 DW, 8.82-31.06 mg trolox⋅g^-1 DW, and 5.30-75.03 ASTA value, respectively. For each trait, there were 2, 31, 16, and 44 germplasms, respectively, which were higher than those of the commercial cultivars. The correlation analysis between the total polyphenol content and antioxidant activity (ABTS and FRAP) showed highly positive correlations, with r=0.69 and r=0.75, respectively. In contrast, the ASTA values showed very low negative correlations with ABTS (r=-0.15) and FRAP (r=-0.26). These results imply that the antioxidant activity in paprika was largely affected by the total polyphenol content but was hardly affected by the ASTA value. Accessions 30, 31, and 56 were selected with high red pigment content, and accessions 5, 21, 24, and 26 had high antioxidant activity as well as high polyphenol content. These germplasms will be useful for the development of new paprika varieties with high red pigment content or high antioxidant activity.

The National Agrobiodiversity Center of the RDA, Korea, has more than 22,700 accessions of global wheat genetic resources, including Korean wheat cultivars and landraces. Despite the numerous efforts to develop high-quality, hard winter wheat, the employment of new genetic resources into Korean wheat breeding programs is still hampered by the different growing environments. To overcome this limitation, 200 germplasms that were screened using the Genebank Management System (GMS) were evaluated in three different regions in Korea. In the 2018–2019 trial, 55 lines that showed superior field performance and high protein content were selected from among the 200 germplasms. These lines were re-evaluated in the 2019–2020 trial, and 24 lines that had suitable traits for growth, grain yield, and grain protein content in three locations were finally selected. These winter wheat germplasms also showed high yield stability throughout the three different environments in Korea. Preliminary screening using GMS information, consecutive regional tests, and quality tests could be effective procedures for the development of hard winter wheat in Korea. Therefore, introduction breeding could be a favorable breeding method aiming to improve quality, where useful genetic resources are limited.

‘Jungmo1022’, a japonica rice cultivar, was developed by a cross between ‘Jinbu31’ (IT212616) and ‘Gyodong23’ (IT213764) by the rice breeding team at the National Institute of Crop Science, Korea, in 2000. ‘Jinbu31’ is tolerant to cold, and ‘Gyodong23’ is early maturing with high yield potential. The growth period of ‘Jungmo1022’ in paddy fields was 116 days on the North-middle highland in Korea, shorter than that of ‘Jinbu’. The culm length of ‘Jungmo1022’ was 67 cm, which was 2 cm shorter than that of ‘Jinbu’. There were 91 spikelets per panicle in ‘Jungmo1022’. The elite line was developed by shuttle breeding in a cold screening field at Chuncheon and highland Jinbu sites in order to screen for cold tolerant varieties. Forty-five lines with more than 50% fertility were selected from the F₂ generation in the cold screening field, and the line SR28990-B-2-2-2 was selected by the pedigree breeding method through F₃-F₇ generations cultivated on the North-middle highland in Jinbu. During the yield trial conducted in 2008-2009 yield trial, an early heading, high-yielding, and cold tolerant line ‘Jinbu 48’ was selected for the local adaptability tests conducted from 2010 to 2012. The early maturing and cold-tolerant ‘Jinbu 48’ was superior to ‘Jinbu’ in exhibiting shorter heading delay, reduced culm length, and spikelet fertility under cold temperature. The new line showed a milled rice productivity of 5.69 MT/ha at Jinbu sites under North-middle highland cultivation and was registered as a new cultivar ‘Jungmo1022’ (Registration No. 5563).

Research on mutation breeding started in the early 1960s by researchers at the Atomic Energy Research Institute, Rural Development Administration (RDA) and several universities in Korea. The Radiation Agriculture Research Institute (RARI) was established in 1966, and studies of mutation breeding using radiation were actively conducted for a while. RARI was merged into the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and RDA in 1973, and radiation breeding research was neglected by the two agencies. In the 1980s, the relevant research department was lost, which resulted in a recession period of radiation breeding research. The Advanced Radiation Research Institute (ARTI), under the KAERI, was established to promote radiation research and the industry in 2005, which led to the activation of radiation breeding research. Then, the Radiation Breeding Research Center (RBRC) at the ARTI was established with support of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in 2013. Recently, the importance of seed and genetic resources has been emphasized in Korea, and many institutes, companies and private breeders are interested in mutation breeding. The RBRC is trying to develop advanced radiation breeding techniques and new genetic resources using mutation techniques combined with bio-tech. This is to deal with the loss of biodiversity due to global climate change and environmental degradation, growing global demand for food and bio-energy, and to strengthen the protection for new plant varieties. Approximately 180 new mutant varieties were developed and registered officially in Korea. Recently, new mutant varieties, especially of flowers and ornamental plants, have quickly increased and are being commercialized, mainly by private company and breeders.

Forest tree improvement is relatively a young science and its purpose is to provide guidance for the conservation, management and sustainable utilization of genetic resources of natural and managed forests. In South Korea, forest tree improvement programs started in 1956. The programs had two main aims: to guarantee the genetic origin of the forest reproductive materials used in afforestation and reforestation, and to develop genetically improved individuals and varieties of some commercially important trees. Since the launch of the forest tree improvement programs, biomass production has been the major improvement target, together with overall adaptability to different sites. Further improvement targets have recently been added, including wood quality traits, and more specific targets linked to adaptation to abiotic and biotic factors in response to new socioeconomic needs and global changes. Additionally, since the early 1970s, forest genetic resource conservation and forest fruit and nut tree breeding have progressed in South Korea. Molecular breeding techniques based on omics information are being developed to enhance the efficacy of selection and to accelerate forest tree breeding cycles. Genetic engineering, including gene editing, has also been applied, but is currently limited to research purposes. Forest tree improvement will be an integral part of the bioeconomy in securing the production of good quality raw materials in large quantities, and will play a significant role in sequestering carbon dioxide and decelerating climate change in the long term.

Red peppers (Capsicum spp.) are one of the most widely consumed vegetables in Korea; thus, improving the beneficial properties of peppers may have important public health implications. Peppers contain various active phenolic compounds, including capsaicinoids; therefore, developing cultivars with high levels of these and other functional compounds is of major interest. We analyzed and compared the physiological activities and functional compounds on 15 cultivars of red peppers, including 5 commonly consumed cultivars that were collected from markets in Korea, and 10 important breeding cultivars that were registered with the National Agrobiodiversity Center (RDA, Korea). Comparisons of polyphenol content showed that polyphenol levels were higher in the green stages of the 10 registered peppers than in the same stage of ‘Noggwang Gochu’ peppers collected from the market. Based on ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzo-thiazoline-6- sulfonic acid) radical scavenging activity, all stages of the 10 registered peppers had higher antioxidative activity than did the green and red stages of ‘Noggwang Gochu.’ Overall, ‘Hongsinho Gochu’ and ‘House Put Gochu’ had the highest antioxidant activity levels and the highest functional content among breeding cultivars. Among landraces, ‘Jeonbuk Wanju’ red peppers had both the highest functional ingredient levels and the highest antioxidant activity levels.

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.

Crown rot caused by Phytophthora cactorum is one of several serious, widespread diseases that cause problems in strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) cultivation. In this study, we aimed to identify a strawberry resistant to P. cactorum through bioassay. A total of 104 wild and cultivated strawberry accessions, including ‘Sulhyang’ and ‘Akihime’, were inoculated with an isolate of P. cactorum, ‘PC151111’. A zoospore suspension was used with a density of approximately 10⁶ zoospores·mL^-1. Three strawberry seedlings were tested three times independently. The disease index was scored on a scale from 0–4 through symptom observation while the inoculated plants were incubated at 25±3°C under 16 h/8 h (light/dark) conditions for three weeks. The results showed that the mean disease index varied from 0.78–3.78, and the ‘Pechika’ and ‘Kaorino’ cultivars were highly resistant to P. cactorum, with mean disease indexes of 0.78 and 0.89, respectively. These cultivars will be useful resources in breeding strawberries resistant to crown rot.

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 carried out to evaluate the oil contents and fatty acid compositions of 379 soybean germplasm accessions which is composed of 128 Korean, 214 Chinese and 37 USA accessions, and to select useful resources for the development of high oil content and quality fatty acid varieties in soybean. Korean and Chinese germplasm accessions were obtained from the National Agrobiodiversity Center, National Academy of Agricultural Science, Rural Development Administration, and USA accessions from the Plant Genetics and Breeding Laboratory of Kyungpook National University, Korea. The oil content ranges from 12.7~26.0% with an average of 19.1% among accessions. The average contents and ranges of palmitic and stearic acid, saturated fatty acids (SFA), were 10.6% with a range of 4.1~18.1% and 2.9% with a range of 1.9~ 12.7% respectively, while those of oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid, unsaturated fatty acids (USFA), were 28.2% with a range of 15.3~56%, 51.2% with a range of 24.4~68% and 7.1% with a range of 3.4~11.1% respectively. The average linoleic(ω -6)/linolenic(ω-3) acid ratio was 7.5 ranging from 3.8~17, and the average SFA and USFA contents were 13.5% ranging from 6.7~21.7% and 86.5% ranging 78.3~93.4% respectively. Accessions with better essential properties were selected as useful resources for the development of high oil content and quality fatty acid varieties. Three accessions, Suinong 14, Dongnong 434 and Dongnong 46 from China contain oil higher than 25.0%, while five accessions including KLG 12073 and KLG 12074 from USA, Jilin 14 from China, Kwangan and Bongeui from Korea contain oleic acid higher than 50%. Eight accessions including KLG12083 and KLG12081 from USA contain linoleic acid higher than 60%. Seven accessions including KLG 12093 and KLG12096 from USA contain linolenic acid lower than 4%. Five accessions, KLG12074 and KLG12073 from USA, Kwangan and Bongeui from Korea, and Dongnong 47 from China were low linoleic acid(ω-6)/linolenic(ω-3) ratio resources with lower than 4.5.

This experiment was carried out to compare the morphological traits of 880 Korean soybean landraces from RDA genebank. Days to flowering were ranged from 51 to 104 days with an average of 74.4 days, days from flowering to maturity were ranged from 28 to 106 days with an average of 72.2 days, days from planting to maturity were ranged from 101 to 188 days with an average 146.6 days. Growth days were the shortest with 140.6 days in soybean landraces from Gangwon Province, and the longest with 152.8 days in those from Jeju Province. The 100 seed weight was ranged from 4.3 to 46.4 g with an average of 26.1 g, higher than other studies, relatively. The 100 seed weight was the lightest from Gyeongnam Province (22.7 g), and the heaviest from Chungnam Province (29.1 g). The highest percentage of seed coat color was black (52.4%), followed by yellow (28.5%). Landraces from Gyeongnam Province was the most yellow seed coat with 50.7%, seed coat color of those from Jeju was similar proportion in yellow (33.3%), green (25.9%) and black one (40.7%), and that from Gyeonggi was more green (28.8%) than yellow (16.7%). As a result of cotyledon color in 460 black seed was 59.7% with yellow, 40.1% with green. Three hundred fifty accessions of Korean soybean landraces were analyzed using 7 SSR markers. One hundred ten alleles were detected with a lowest 10 at the Satt307 and a highest 26 at the Satt173. The average polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.71. Gene diversity was the highest in Jeju province while the lowest in Jeonnam.