Black soybean (Glycine max L.) has been used as a traditional medicine because its seed coat contains various natural phenolic compounds such as anthocyanins. The objective of this study was to reveal the genetic variation in the agricultural traits, phytochemicals, and antioxidant activity of 172 Korean black soybean landraces (KBSLs) and establish a relationship among them. The evaluation of three agricultural traits (days to 50% flowering, maturity, and 100-seed weight), six phytochemicals (delphinidin-3-glucoside, cyaniding-3-glucoside, petunidin-3-glucoside, daidzin, glycitin, and genestin), and four antioxidant activities (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2 -azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)(ABTS), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and the total polyphenol content (TPC) of 172 KBSLs were analyzed in 2012 and 2015. The agricultural traits, phytochemicals, and antioxidant activities of the 172 KBSLs showed wide variation among the accessions and years. In correlation analysis, the agricultural traits and phytochemicals showed positive and negative correlations with phytochemicals and antioxidant activity, respectively. The principal component analyses result indicated that phytochemicals accounted for most of the variability in the KBSLs. In clustering analysis, the 172 KBSLs were classified into four clusters. These results could lead to expanding the knowledge of the agricultural traits, phytochemicals, and antioxidant activity of the KBSLs, which are valuable materials for the development of new soybean varieties.

Red peppers are a remarkable source of nutrients in the human diet. However, comprehensive studies have not reported on the effects of genotype, cultivation region, and year on pepper fruit characteristics. To address this, 12 commercial pepper varieties were grown at two locations in South Korea, during 2016 and 2017, representing four environments, and concentrations of proximate, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, capsaicinoids, and free sugars in pepper pericarps were determined. Variation in most nutrients was observed among the 12 varieties grown within each location in each year, indicating a significant genotype effect. Statistical analysis of combined data showed significant differences among varieties, locations, and years for the measured components. The % variability analysis demonstrated that environment (location and year) and genotype-environment interaction contributed more to the nutritional contents than genotype alone. Particularly, variation in many amino acids, capsaicinoids, free sugars, and myristic acid was attributed to location. Year effect was significant for palmitoleic acid, ash, tryptophan, copper, linolenic acid, crude fiber, and tyrosine. Insoluble dietary fiber, soluble dietary fiber, sodium, sulfate, linoleic acid, and alanine were primarily varied by genotype–environment interaction. Palmitic acid was the trait the most highly affected by genotype. Cultivation and the genotype–environment interaction have a major role in determining the composition of 12 pepper varieties across four environments. The data from this study could explain the natural variation in the compositional data of peppers by genotypes and environments.

BACKGROUND PfFAD3 transgenic soybean expressing omega‐3 fatty acid desaturase 3 of Physaria produces increased level of α‐linolenic acid in seed. Composition data of non‐transgenic conventional varieties is important in the safety assessment of the genetically‐modified (GM) crops in the context of the natural variation. RESULTS The natural variation was characterized in seed composition of 13 Korean soybean varieties grown in three locations in South Korea for 2 years. Univariate analysis of combined data showed significant differences by variety and cultivation environment for proximates, minerals, anti‐nutrients, and fatty acids. Percent variability analysis demonstrated that genotype, environment and the interaction of environment with genotype contributed to soybean seed compositions. Principal component analysis and orthogonal projections to latent structure discriminant analysis indicated that significant variance in compositions was attributable to location and cultivation year. The composition of three PfFAD3 soybean lines for proximates, minerals, anti‐nutrients, and fatty acids was compared to a non‐transgenic commercial comparator (Kwangankong, KA), and three non‐transgenic commercial varieties grown at two sites in South Korea. Only linoleic and linolenic acids significantly differed in PfFAD3‐1 lines compared to KA, which were expected changes by the introduction of the PfFAD3‐1 trait in KA. CONCLUSION Genotype, environment, and the interaction of environment with genotype contributed to compositional variability in soybean. PfFAD3‐1 soybean is equivalent to the conventional varieties with respect to these components. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

The safety of transgenic Bt rice containing bacteria-derived mCry1Ac gene from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) was assessed by conducting field trials at two locations for two consecutive years in South Korea, using the near-isogenic line comparator rice cultivar (‘Ilmi’, non-Bt rice) and four commercial cultivars as references. Compositional analyses included measurement of proximates, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, and antinutrients. Significant differences between Bt rice and non-Bt rice were detected; however, all differences were within the reference range. The statistical analyses, including analysis of % variability, analysis of similarities (ANOISM), similarity percentage (SIMPER) analysis, and permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) were performed to study factors contributing to compositional variability. The multivariate analyses revealed that environmental factors more influenced rice components’ variability than by genetic factors. This approach was shown to be a powerful method to provide meaningful evaluations between Bt rice and its comparators. In this study, Bt rice was proved to be compositionally equivalent to conventional rice varieties through multiple statistical methods.

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