As I plan ahead for college graduation and graduate school, it is sometimes easy to get carried away and wish for things to be easier and different. Sometimes I just don’t want to be in any more science classes, but I know that success in medical school or graduate school depends on me going back and learning more details about the topics I may already be familiar with. I have realized that although my science classes tend to cover concepts I have been learning since sixth grade, it is the details that we keep building. And this is true for any area in life; once we have a job, the concepts will remain the same, but how much detail we are able to learn and use is what provides success.

Research in the plant world follows a similar pattern as well. We have seen several breakthroughs in soybean plant research in the past year, including resistance to the soybean aphid disease, economic impact of soybean research, nutritional value of soybeans, etc.  Soybeans are one of the most important agricultural commodities today.  Recently, researchers from 18 national institutes combined resources to map the genome of soybean, a project that was published in Nature two weeks ago.

The details of the genes from soybean plant are of utmost importance, according to the research paper. Various institutes have already begun various projects to increase insect resistance, improve nitrogen fixation, and decrease phytate production (which can decrease phosphorous poisoning in other creatures) in soybeans.

This research can lead to even better soybean yields with higher nutritional benefits. Gene mapping is one of the most important tools scientists can use when trying to create better versions of certain traits in plants.

Discussion question: What other plant(s) would be crucial to sequence/gene map?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100113131457.htm
Research Article: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v463/n7278/full/nature08670.html