Non Technical Summary
Improving the climate resilience and soil salinity tolerance of oilseed crops will be critical to US and global agricultural production and food security. Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is an important oilseed crop with the potential to play an important role in meeting this challenge. Enriched with essential amino acids, proteins, lipids, and metabolites, soybeans contribute 56% of the world's edible oil for human consumption, and they are increasingly used in nutraceutical, chemical, and fuel production. Recently, transcriptome analysis identified several candidate salt-responsive genes in soybeans, and overexpression of these candidate genes in soybeans improved salt tolerance. In addition, ectopic expression of genes from tobacco and Arabidopsis resulted in enhanced salt tolerance in soybeans. We aim to develop salt stress tolerance in soybean plants and enhance oil seed yield. The development of tools such as gene constructs, genetic transformation, molecular and biochemical methods, and transgenic soybean lines with increased salt tolerance will be useful to support soybean crop improvement to strengthen food security further.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
206	1899	1040	100%

Knowledge Area
206 - Basic Plant Biology;

Subject Of Investigation
1899 - Oilseed and oil crops, general/other;

Field Of Science
1040 - Molecular biology;

Goals / Objectives
Our project will be designed to achieve the following objectives: 1) investigate regulatory mechanisms of salt stress tolerance in soybeans, 2) genetically enhance salt stress tolerance in soybeans 3) improve the agronomic performance of salt-tolerant soybeans.

Project Methods
This project will use genomics, lipidomics, biotechnological, and physiological methods to study the mechanisms that lead to increased salt stress resistance in soybeans. Generation of transgenic soybean with candidate genes under the control of constitutive promoters, analysis of transgenic soybean plants generated, molecular and biochemical analysis, the morphology of plants, and salt stress-related physiological analysis will be used to gain a mechanistic understanding of these candidate genes/transcription factor. Changes in photosynthesis, biomass yield, metabolites such as oils, starches, free sugars, and glucose will be measured in the transgenic soybean lines under normal and salt-stressed conditions.