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Barbara Klein (left), professor of foods and nutrition, and graduate student Azza Hassanein load samples of soy yogurt for analysis by high-pressure liquid chromatography. Thisesearch is part of major effort in the U of I’s Department of Foods and Human Nutrition to develop new products that can help change consumer perceptions of soy foods. |
In other research underway in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, professor Barbara Klein and graduate assistant Azza Hassanein are working to change consumer attitudes by developing a good-tasting yogurt made from soy milk. Unlike the few brands of soybean yogurt now available in health food stores, this yogurt does not have the typical beany flavor associated with soy products. Most importantly, this product is free of both cholesterol and lactose.
"We inactivate the enzymes that provide flavor by blanching the soybeans twice when making our soy milk," Hassanein says. "The milk is bland, without an objectionable flavor or aftertaste."
It takes about 12 hours to turn soybeans into soy milk and then into yogurt. The researchers already have developed strawberry, vanilla, and plain yogurt flavors. They are working with food ingredient companies to experiment with other flavorings. They may eventually fortify the yogurt with calcium as well.
According to Klein, the soybean yogurt is a good choice for people who are lactose intolerant. Most important, however, is growing recognition of the overall health benefits that consumers get from eating soy. As a result, Klein is convinced that now is the right time for soybean yogurt to hit the market.
"Fifteen year ago, a few food companies tried to introduce soybean yogurt, but they felt there was no market for it," she says. "But, at the same time, 15 years ago, mainstream Americans wouldn’t touch any kind of yogurt. Today, yogurt is very popular. Consumers should now accept soybean yogurt if it tastes good."
The soybean yogurt made at the U of I already has passed a consumer taste test and has won approval from a team of sensory professionals. The strawberry-sweetened yogurt was the top choice of both groups.
Because major food companies have expressed an interest in the product, Klein expects that a commercial version will be developed soon. Meanwhile, the two researchers are manipulating the formula for optimum quality and dreaming up other new products made with soybeans.
Researchers Explore Genetic Origins Of the Soybean Cyst Nematode
The soybean cyst nematode (SCN) was unknown in the United States until it was first detected in North Carolina during 1954. Since then, soybean cyst nematodes have been reported in every major growing region of the U.S.
From the time of the first discovery of SCN, however, questions about the origin of this pest and the date when it first entered the U.S. have sparked major disagreements among scientists.
But, today researchers at the University of Illinois are beginning to find answers to these questions by applying some of the same genetic techniques that have helped other scientists to probe the mysteries of human origins, as well as the origins of other animals and plants.
"Some researchers believe that the nematode is indigenous to this country and is derived from an ancient ancestor that was widespread in Asia and North America," says Greg Noel, nematologist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and the U of I’s Department of Crop Sciences. "Our genetic research on numerous populations of SCN, however, points to the alternate probability that this pest originated in China and was imported to the U.S. from Japan in the late 1800's or early 1900's."
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Nematologist Greg Noel (right) and veterinary pathobiologist Zonglin Liu consult a family history chart of soybean lineages. These genetic lineages played a key role in tracing the origins of the soybean cyst nematode in the U.S. to soil brought from Japan near the turn of the century. |
These results are based on extensive genetic testing carried out in collaboration with Zonglin Liu of the Department of Veterinary Pathology on SCN populations from China and Japan and the states of Illinois, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
"Our data indicate that SCN arose in Japan from a progenitor ancestral line in China," Noel says. "All the genotypes and rare alleles were found only among four populations from China. No new genotypes or alleles were found among the large numbers of populations and individuals we tested from Japan and the United States."
The data, according to Noel, fit the pattern in which a population derived from a founding colony in a new area will show reduced genetic variability, including loss of rare alleles. This is the same so-called "founder effect" that played a key role in development of the recent "African Eve" theory of human origins.
Noel notes that, in the case of SCN, the similarities between Japanese and U.S. populations indicate that infestations in the U.S. probably originated with several colonizations from Japanese sources.
"The hypothesis of Chinese origin and movement of SCN to Japan and subsequent introduction into the U.S. is consistent with what we know about the origin and domestication of the soybean," he says.
There is general agreement that the soybean originated in central and northern China and was first domesticated in that area about 1100 B.C. Cultivated soybeans were first introduced into Japan sometime between 200 B.C. and 300 A.D.
"We know that soybean seed frequently was imported into the U.S. during the late 1800's and early 1900's, but the resulting plants from those seeds were not nodulated because the nitrogen fixing bacterium is not native to North America," Noel says. "In order for soybean in the U.S. to fix nitrogen, inoculum in the form of soil and potted plants growing in soil were imported from Japan on several documented occasions during that period."
Noel points out that the soil was then distributed to various agricultural experiment stations around the country. Farmers subsequently spread soil infested with SCN from field to field as inoculum to nodulate soybeans.
According to Noel, it is likely that the infestations first discovered during the 1950's in several states resulted from populations established many years before as a result of these seed and soil importations from Japan.
"Answers to the questions about the origin of SCN in the U.S. can help us to better understand the basic genetics and development of races of this major soybean pest," he says. "This knowledge could then be applied to development of soybean varieties with different sources of race-specific resistance tailored to prevent the buildup of SCN populations within a field."
Project Seeks to Ensure Markets For New Soy Oil Product
The soybean today is widely recognized as one of the most versatile crops in the world, with uses ranging from adhesives to food. As part of a major project funded by the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research (C-FAR), an inter-disciplinary team at the University of Illinois is working to ensure that one of the newest uses--modified edible soy oil--will flow smoothly from the laboratory to the marketplace.
As one research team works to develop a new, high-oil soybean line with a fatty acid composition that will appeal to health conscious consumers, another team is analyzing the competition, assessing the costs and risks, and evaluating anticipated marketing problems for this new soy product.
"How can we best get this new product to the marketplace?" says team member Karen Bender of the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. "If we can answer that question for this product, we expect to also have some information that can be applied to other new soybean products."
The overall goal of the original research project is to develop speciality soybean lines with high oil content and specialized fatty acid composition in order to increase the soybean’s share of the edible oil and industrial markets. The team for this project includes Schuyler S. Korban of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, A. Lane Rayburn and Randall Nelson of the Department of Crop Sciences, Ion Baianu of the Department of Foods Sciences and Human Nutrition, and Robert Hornbaker of the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. Primary funding for the project is provided by the Illinois-Missouri Biotechnology Alliance.
As researchers continue working on the new soybean lines for producing this modified soy oil, the other team is developing a database to track factors such as production, consumption, end uses, and market shares for edible oils. The group also is looking for comparative strengths and weaknesses that a modified, high-oil soybean might have in consumer markets. Besides Baianu, Bender, Korban,, and Hornbaker, this team also includes Lowell Hill of the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics.
"This new high-oil soybean could produce a ‘health food’ oil that fills a special niche," Bender says. "We want to look at the potential for this soybean oil to compete with other oils and find ways to strengthen its market position once it is out there."
A summer survey of edible oil processors in the U.S. was aimed in part at finding whether they used speciality crops to produce an edible oil for fatty acid content or whether they purchased oilseed on a grade-only basis.
"There are costs incurred in transportation and handling of speciality crops," Bender says. "Even so, we were surprised to find that few of the edible oil processors were using speciality oilseeds. They made what they could out of what they got."
The typical alternative to the traditional commodity market is identity preservation of specific varieties. These varieties have specific characteristics, and ensuring that those characteristics are not diluted in handling can be difficult and costly.
But Bender suggests that additional market channels may exist between the commodity markets and the identity preserved markets. For example, one possible alternative would have growers produce a high-oil variety that meets standards for oil content, regardless of the oil quality. This alternative would be more desirable for processors purchasing oil crops based solely on numerical grade but would be less difficult to handle and less costly than identity preserved varieties. Sophisticated measurement technology would allow differentiation based on oil quality as well as quantity.
"For certain end uses, the choice of variety with high enough oil content to meet the desired levels of oil will be enough," she says. "Gearing high-value soybeans to high-value markets will better match quality with end-use demands for high oil content and healthy oil. That is where the real market potential may be for the new high-oil soybean."
She adds that technology and price may provide the solution and incentive to create alternative market channels. Oil content today can be measured in seconds, which allows producers and handler to quickly know what they have in a particular crop. In the case of the new soybean oil, that would be a more healthful, high-oil product.
"There are not a lot of new markets, but this research could offer farmers a better way to serve markets that already exist," Bender says.
The first phase of the project will be completed in early 1998. Additional surveys and data analysis will be needed to more fully evaluate new market channels for high-oil soybeans and other new products.
Study Ranks Soybean Varieties For Resistance to White Mold
Soybean producers preparing for the upcoming growing season now have access to information on which commercial varieties show resistance to the emerging fungal disease known as white mold with the release of first-year results from a research study at the University of Illinois.
"With support from the Illinois Soybean Checkoff Board, we screened nearly 250 soybean varieties and breeding lines for resistance to white mold during 1997," says Wayne Pedersen, plant pathologist at the U of I’s National Soybean Research Laboratory (NSRL). "Of these, 30 varieties in five maturity groups from 1.1 to 3.0 were classified as partially resistant. A number of these varieties yielded more than 55 bushels per acre at our field site in Iroquois County."
White mold, which is also known as Sclerotina stem rot, ranked as a major problem for many soybean growers in northern and central Illinois during 1996. Although the disease was not a serious problem in 1997, many of the fields that had disease problems in 1996 will be planted to soybeans in 1998.
Pedersen notes that the pathogen survives in the soil for as long as five to seven years in the form of black sclerotia. These sclerotia also can be found in grain samples during harvest.
"Crop rotation with corn or wheat will not provide adequate control," he says. "Fungicides can reduce white mold, but they must be applied before the disease is visible. The most effective means of controlling white mold is through the use of resistant varieties."
This study, which was carried out in collaboration with USDA plant pathologist Glen Hartman and other members of the white mold research team at the NSRL, used three different screening methods: greenhouse inoculations in a mist chamber, inoculations in a field-size mist house, and natural infection in a farmer’s field.
"In the greenhouse study, the amount of disease ranged from 55 percent survival to all plants dying," Pedersen says. "We considered any variety with at least 25 percent survival to have partial resistance. Approximately 20 percent of entries in this trial meet that criteria."
During field-size trials in a mist house, the plants were inoculated with the pathogen at mid-bloom. None of the entries in this part of the study completely escaped infection. The percentage of infection for these plants ranged from 15 to 100 percent. Any entry with less than 60 percent infection was rated as partially resistant.
"The final screening method was done in a soybean grower’s field near the town of Watseka," Pedersen says. "The plots were planted in early May. The soybeans were drilled in seven-inch rows at 220,000 seeds per acre. The plots were rated from 0 to 5, with zero equaling no disease and five equaling near all dead plants. Any entry receiving a rating of 2 or less was considered to have partial resistance."
Pedersen notes that entries were only included on the final list of varieties if they met the resistance standards for all three types of evaluation. No varieties were completely resistant to white mold in all three trials.
"Under severe disease pressure, all varieties would be expected to have some level of disease," he says. "Thus, it is important to consider the overall yield potential in your area when selecting a variety. This information is readily available by consulting local yield trials, including those conducted by the University of Illinois."
Varieties Rated as Partially Resistant to White Mold
(* indicates varieties with yields that exceeded 55 bushels per acre in field trials)
| Maturity Group | Company | Variety |
| 1.1-1.5 | Dairyland Seed | DSR158 |
| Limagrain | 1831 | |
| 1.6-1.9 | Dairyland Seed | DSR 173 |
| DSR 182 RR | ||
| Garst | D163N | |
| *EX7173 | ||
| Golden Harvest | X-174 | |
| Hughes Seed | *198 | |
| Limagrain | CM1750 | |
| Novartis Seeds | S19-90 | |
| 2.0-2.5 | Dairyland Seed | DSR 220 STS |
| Golden Harvest | X-201 | |
| H-1213 | ||
| H-1242 STS | ||
| Hughes Seed | *220X | |
| Sieben Hybrids | SS2702 RR | |
| SS2401 RR | ||
| 2.6-2.9 | Dairyland Seed | DSR 250 STS |
| Golden Harvest | *X-282 | |
| Martin Wilkin & Son | *271 | |
| *X7271STS | ||
| *291CN | ||
| Public (Illinois) | Iroquois | |
| *Jack | ||
| Sieben Hybrids | SS291 | |
| 3.0-3.9 | Garst Seeds | *D308 |
| Golden Harvest | X-322 | |
| Martin Wilkin & Son | *301C | |
| Pioneer Hi-Bred | 9381 | |
| Sieben Hybrids | *SS326 |
I am very pleased to announce that the faculty, staff, and students of the National Soybean Research Laboratory are playing a key role in organizing the Global Soy Forum, which is a first-ever event for the soybean industry. The Forum, which is scheduled to be held in Chicago during August 4 to 7, 1999, will bring together all constituents of the soybean industry to discuss the future of the industry in today’s rapidly changing global environment. The Soybean Research Development Council, a joint venture of the Iowa Soybean Promotion Board and the Illinois Soybean Checkoff Board, is serving as the co-organizer of the Forum with NSRL.
As we approach the end of the 20th Century, it is appropriate that we celebrate the past success of the industry, take stock of our current status, and plan for the future. Although rivals on a daily basis, the participants in the global soybean industry have a number of common concerns and interests that should be debated in a public venue.
The Global Soy Forum is designed to bring together the entire soybean community--researchers, producers, agribusinesses, industry leaders, policy makers, and consumers--under one roof. The resulting interactions will better position the soybean industry to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century and will help create and enhance partnerships among decision-makers in countries that produce and consume soybeans. Most importantly, this event will provide a forum for celebrating the past successes and charting an even more productive future for the soybean industry.
Two conferences--the World Soybean Research Conference VI (WSRC VI) and the IVth Midwest Soybean Conference--will comprise the core components of the Forum. The program for the WSRC VI is being coordinated by Professor Harold Kauffman of the Crop Sciences Department at the University of Illinois. The call for papers, poster sessions, and special symposiums for WSRC VI will follow shortly.
Although we are still relatively early in the process of attracting sponsors, the Global Soy Forum already has received widespread support among soybean organizations and agribusiness. The United Soybean Board, the Illinois Soybean Checkoff Board, and the Iowa Soybean Promotion Board have agreed to be major sponsors. The American Soybean Association will provide in-kind support through their staff and extensive international contacts.
Several state soybean boards have been contacted and have conveyed their enthusiastic support for the forum, and all state boards will be given the opportunity to participate. Our initial contacts with leading firms in the soy industry have received a warm welcome. A number of substantial commitments already have been received and more are expected.
Future issues of the NSRL Bulletin will provide regular updates about the Forum. Meanwhile you can obtain the latest information on line at: http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~gsf99.
Steven Sonka
NSRL Director and Soybean Industry Chair in Agricultural Strategy
The NSRL Bulletin is published three times a year by the National Soybean Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois, 170 Environmental and Agricultural Sciences Building, 1101 W. Peabody Drive, Urbana, IL 61801; telephone (217)244-1706; e-mail nsrl@uiuc.edu; FAX (217)244-1707. Steven T. Sonka, director; Robert J. Wynstra, editor; Tina Prow and Lisa Sheppard, contributing editors; David Riecks, photographer; Lynn Hawkinson Smith, graphic designer.
Unless otherwise stated, articles may be reproduced or quoted if credit is given to the NSRL Bulletin. The National Soybean Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois is an affirmative action and equal opportunity institution.
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