Source: VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE submitted to
DEVELOPING EDAMAME VARIETIES FOR MECHANIZED PRODUCTION AND IMPROVED CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE TO INCREASE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE VEGETABLE INDUSTRY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1016465
Grant No.
2018-51181-28384
Cumulative Award Amt.
$3,746,265.00
Proposal No.
2018-03390
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2018
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2023
Grant Year
2018
Program Code
[SCRI]- Specialty Crop Research Initiative
Recipient Organization
VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
(N/A)
BLACKSBURG,VA 24061
Performing Department
CSES
Non Technical Summary
While edamame has become the second largest soy-food consumed in the U.S., at least 70% of edamame consumed in the U.S. is imported due to the lack of suitable domestic edamame cultivars that meet both producer and consumer expectations. Thus, stakeholders identified the critical need to develop new edamame varieties with desirable plant architecture and growth habits for efficient machine harvest, rapid canopy closure to suppress weed competition, and improved appearance and flavor for consumer acceptance. Our long-term goals are to increase competitiveness and consumption of domestically produced edamame products, and to become the main supplier in the U.S. and international markets. Our overall objectives are to develop and release improved domestic edamame cultivars, and to conduct effective extension activities to promote edamame adoption and consumption. The proposed work is original because the interdisciplinary research and extension team will address the main barriers in edamame production through a strong system approach. Our expected outcomes are breeding lines and cultivars derived from crossing edamame accessions with high consumer acceptance and grain soybeans suitable for mechanical harvest and feasible weed management, and farmers' adoption of new cultivars. These outcomes are thus expected to have a positive impact by increasing domestic production and reducing imports from overseas that will enhance the economic sustainability of the specialty crop industry within the U.S., reduce carbon emissions leading to a clean environment, and improve Americans' health due to the increased consumption of edamame.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2011411108130%
2041411310030%
2021411104010%
6031411301010%
2011411208010%
5021411309010%
Knowledge Area
204 - Plant Product Quality and Utility (Preharvest); 603 - Market Economics; 201 - Plant Genome, Genetics, and Genetic Mechanisms; 202 - Plant Genetic Resources; 502 - New and Improved Food Products;

Subject Of Investigation
1411 - Beans (fresh, fresh-processed);

Field Of Science
1040 - Molecular biology; 3090 - Sensory science (human senses); 1081 - Breeding; 2080 - Mathematics and computer sciences; 3010 - Economics; 3100 - Management;
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goals are to increase competitiveness and consumption of domestically produced edamame products with improved sensory attributes, and to become the main supplier in the U.S. and international markets. Edamame has become the second largest soy-food consumed in the U.S., but the U.S. still imports at least 70% of edamame from China and Taiwan (Shurtleff et al., 2014). Therefore, this project aims to reverse this condition to dominate the U.S. market and reduce imports. To achieve these goals, we expect to release superior edamame cultivars with improved traits for sustainable production systems and consumer acceptance, induce a revitalization of the U.S. vegetable industry, and improve the health of edamame consumers due to nutritional attributes. Thus, successful development and release of improved domestic varieties, and effective extension activities to promote adoption and consumption will increase economic, environmental and social sustainability of the edamame industry in the U.S.The specific objectives are:Obj. 1 Genetics and Genomics - To identify edamame accessions with large bean size and desired flavor from large-seeded soybean germplasm collected by USDA through characterization and evaluation of their agronomic and edamame quality traits in Mid-South environments.Obj. 2 Breeding and Phenomics - To implement desired plant architecture and rapid canopy closure from grain soybeans into edamame accessions with high quality beans.Obj. 3 Food Science, Phenomics, Entomology, Weed Science, Plant Pathology, and Breeding -To release improved edamame cultivars for mechanical harvest through the evaluation of current large-seeded, advanced grain soybean breeding lines on plant architecture, canopy closure and flavor.Obj. 4 Extension/Outreach - To disseminate, discuss and educate stakeholders about edamame variety selection and quality attributes, and production practices through extension activities.
Project Methods
Obj. 1 - To identify edamame accessions with large bean size and desired flavor from large-seeded soybean germplasm collected by USDA through characterization and evaluation of their agronomic and edamame quality traits in Mid-South environments.Identify promising large-seeded accessions with high consumer acceptance adapted to the Mid-South Region We will evaluate 46 genotypes including 44 accessions, one edamame check and one commercial check on their agronomic traits, edamame quality traits and flavor at the breeding programs in three states, VA, AR and MO. The edamame check will provide the reference of edamame quality and flavor, and the commercial check will provide the reference of agronomic traits.Discover QTL associated with flavor (sweetness)Genome-wide association study for edamame sucrose and alanine contents will be performed in a 302 genotype panel: 281 accessions (selected from preliminary results 3.3.3 based on seed availability), including 25 large-seeded breeding lines from UA, 20 large-seeded breeding lines from VT and UA 5612, commercial soybean check to facilitate the gene discovery process. We will also develop nine new mapping populations to narrow down the QTL for edamame sucrose and alanine contents, and utilize major QTL to assist future edamame breeding selection.Explore the correlation between sensory and flavor attributes with instrumentationWe will measure volatile compounds responsible for beany flavor, sucrose, and alanine for the 44 edamame accessions to use as screening criteria to select premier varieties for breeding activities and to explore the correlation between instrumentally measured flavor compounds and consumer acceptance.Obj. 2 - To implement desired plant architecture and rapid canopy closure from grain soybeans into edamame accessions with high quality beans.Identify elite grain soybeans with desired plant architecture and canopy closure using phenomics techniquesHigh-throughput and high-dimensional phenotyping have become established approaches to characterize phenomes. We will use an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) mounted with a novel sensor array to evaluate the plant architecture including plant height, bottom pod positions, and canopy closure speed.Develop edamame populations and improve edamame germplasmWe will cross the selected edamame accessions with improved consumer acceptance with elite grain soybean breeding lines with desired plant architecture and fast canopy closure. Each breeding program will start to make 10-15 crosses in 2020 using selected edamame accessions (2 year evaluation) and elite grain soybean (1 year evaluation). We will continue to make 15-20 crosses each year from 2021 using selected grain soybean after multiple year evaluation. All F1 seeds will be sent to winter nursery in Puerto Rico for 3 generation advance. Approximately 500-800 plants from each population will be advanced to F4 each year after 2021. We will collect tissue of each plant from which DNA will be extracted and screened by SNP markers flanking major sucrose and alanine QTL discovered in Obj.2.Obj. 3 - To release improved edamame cultivars for mechanical harvest through the evaluation of current large-seeded, advanced grain soybean breeding lines on plant architecture, canopy closure and flavor.Virginia and Arkansas breeding programs will share large-seeded advanced breeding lines to evaluate them for edamame production, target traits, and suitability/efficiency of mechanical harvest. In addition, trials will monitor and evaluate incidence of pests and diseases to determine potential differences in susceptibility/resistance. Production data and cultural practices will assist in the economic assessment of edamame production (commodity enterprise budget) to determine the feasibility and potential crop profitability. Similarly, the generated performance information will assist in selection and support for release of the top edamame varieties.Large-seeded grain soybean multi-location trialsYearly edamame performance trials of 25 to 30 advanced breeding lines will be conducted in Painter, VA, Blacksburg, VA, and Newport, AR. Trials will evaluate performance under different weed management programs to determine the association of canopy closure with their capacity to compete with weeds. In addition, trials will evaluate performance and machine harvest efficiency to determine their association with plant architecture and uniformity of pod growth and maturity.Edamame cultivars releaseBreeders who provide the large-seeded soybean breeding lines will make the technical decision to submit candidate edamame varieties to the variety release committee at his/her institution. The release application will include variety parentage and breeding history, description of the variety such as maturity groups, seed size, flavor, plant architecture, canopy closure, etc., disease, insect, weed, and other pest interactions, and justification for release by comparison with commercial edamame checks at three-state regional trials.Obj. 4 - To disseminate, discuss and educate stakeholders about edamame variety selection and quality attributes, and production practices through extension activities.On-farm Extension and demonstration activitiesTo engage vegetable farmers into experiencing first-hand the outcomes of the edamame breeding program, the project will implement on-farm demonstration trials with elite edamame lines on the second, third and fourth year of the project. These on-farm trials will further evaluate harvest efficiency with other bean harvesters (Pixall 1500 bean harvester and a FMC harvester).Economic assessment and marketingStripped pods from edamame trials will be supplied to local retailers in exchange for price and revenue information. Data on production expenses, yield, and labor (both harvest and post-harvest) will also be collected to assess producer profitability.Develop traditional and novel curriculum to educate producers about edamame productionExtension programs will establish a network of edamame stakeholders to disseminate the generated as well as available information during the life of the project and beyond. In addition, the project will provide tasting opportunities for stakeholders and potential consumers to experience the improved flavor attributes of the new varieties. Extension publications will be posted in both the Virginia Cooperative Extension website, and the UA Cooperative Extension Service website. In addition, we will seek publications through the eXtension and eOrganic specific for edamame to effectively reach farmers across the U.S. and beyond, especially organic farmers. Annual meetings throughout Virginia and Arkansas will be opportunities to share the information, improve farmer's knowledge, and promote edamame production. Each year, the Eastern Shore AREC Research Field Day in Painter, VA will be showing the edamame variety trial and harvesting demonstration. This event usually attracts 80 to 150 vegetable as well as row crop farmers, industry representatives and extension personnel. Additional field tours will be coordinated with participating farmers to show the on-farm demonstration trials.Website development In order to maximize outreach efforts to stakeholders, producers, and consumers, a dedicated website will be developed for the project. In addition to project goals, objectives and highlighted progress, this site will feature videos with advancements in production and harvest of new edamame varieties, related pest and weed management strategy recommendations, farm level feasibility tools, and consumer oriented facts about purchasing and consuming edamame.Education and student rotation among all institutionsIn addition to the educational programs considered in the Extension activities, this project will provide training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars.

Progress 09/01/18 to 08/29/23

Outputs
Target Audience:This project targets a diverse audience including specialty crop farmers, local service providers, extension agents and the bean/edamame processing and marketing industries in Virginia, Arkansas, and surrounding states. The long-term goal of the project is to increase competitiveness and of domestically-produced edamame products with improved sensory attributes, and to become the main supplier in the U.S. and international markets. Therefore, the elements on the supply chain including growers, processors, distributors, and end users are the crucial target audience. The primary audience who benefits from the research presentations and publications are scientists, including: plant breeders in both public and private sectors, food scientists in food processing and nutrition, researchers who are interested in phenomics and genomics, agricultural economics, plant pathology, and entomology, etc.? Aside from the aforementioned stakeholders, we were able to increase awareness of edamame and our project within the broader academic and agricultural community in Virginia this year. In particular, some of our Virginia Tech Extension specialists and graduate students educated numerous audiences through a number of extensions talks - including home gardeners, grain and soybean producers, undergraduate students, as well as graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty in Virginia Tech's Translational Plant Science (TPS) program - about edamame, its economic potential, pest management and our team's innovative, cross-disciplinary approach to variety development. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Throughout the project, graduate students have been responsible for conducting fieldwork, sample processing, assembly of sensory panels, and much of the data collection/analysis. Not only do these opportunities provide valuable opportunities for graduate students on the project to develop teamwork and leadership skills, but also hands-on experience with collecting and analyzing data, preparing manuscripts, publishing in academic journals, and orally presenting their results to a variety of audiences. Students are also present at project meetings, where they are able to observe and participate in discussions pertaining to planning and logistics, experimental design, troubleshooting, and problem-solving. Undergraduate students have also been able to participate in the project to get early experience in conducting their own research projects such as the investigation of edamame harvest time and sharing their results with the public through research symposiums and research posters. In Huang lab, one research associate, two graduate students (one MS. and one Ph.D.) and 15 undergraduate students have been trained through the edamame project. Students were trained to conduct food processing experiments, wet chemistry analyses, and advanced instrumentations (e.g., high performance liquid chromatography, particle size analyzer, and scanning electron microscopy). Meanwhile, students were trained to write technical reports and peer reviewed manuscripts, present outcomes in national and international conferences, and interact with industrial professionals and farmers. The students received numerous research awards from the campus to national levels. In Li lab, two graduate students (one Ph.D. and one MS.) and five undergraduate students were trained in the edamame project. Students were trained to collect drone images, analyze drone images, extract plant features such as canopy cover, pod location, branch number, and plant height from images using computer vision algorithms. Graduate students were trained to develop advanced computer vision algorithms using python and R programming languages. Students were also trained on genetic analysis such as performing GWAS using R. Students were also trained on public presentation, poster preparation and presentation, manuscript writing, grant development and data management. The Ph.D. student secured an industry job as a digital agriculture scientist in a well-known agricultural company. In Yin lab, one Ph.D. student is working towards her graduation, two undergraduate students are working under her guidance. Students were trained to work on sample pre-treatment for flavor analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry (GCO) as well as preparing and conducting sensory evaluation. Meanwhile, they were also exposed to data analysis and generic instrumental maintenance. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the last year of the project, we published five research articles in peer-reviewed journals. Eight manuscripts were published in non-peer-reviewed and trade journals, including extension publications. A total of eighteen oral or poster presentations were presented in scientific meetings and seven presentations in Extension presentations such as field days or soybean breeders' workshops. Also, around 50 edamame elite breeding lines were developed by all breeding programs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For Obj. 1: To identify edamame accessions with large bean size and desired flavor from large-seeded soybean germplasm collected by USDA through characterization and evaluation of their agronomic and edamame quality traits in Mid-South environments. Parental Selection. In 2023, a total of 271 genetically diverse accessions (MG 3 to 8) with large-seeded size (range 26 to 39 g 100 seeds-1) from the USDA Germplasm Collection are being evaluated for their agronomic and edamame quality traits in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The accessions with the best edamame traits will be selected as parental lines to cross with advanced breeding lines to incorporate edamame traits into adapted high-yielding germplasm and cultivars. In addition, genome-wide association studies for pod and seed weight traits are being conducted on this set of genetically diverse accessions. Genomic-based prediction models will be developed to estimate GEBV of untested genotypes and molecular markers associated with traits may be incorporated in marker-assisted selection. Chemical Analysis of edamame compositions No work was planned in 2022. For Obj 2. To implement desired plant architecture and rapid canopy closure from grain soybeans into edamame accessions with high quality beans. Pod detection on plants. We have developed computational methods to recognize pod locations on plants using multiple advanced object detection algorithms including maskRCNN and YOLO. The result is that markRCNN can perform reasonably well in detecting pods on a plant with all leaves removed. We also worked on analysis of shoot architecture using machine learning and computer vision techniques. Finally, an interactive machine learning method was developed which allows users to sort pod maturity and disease status using an interactive computer interface. Breeding. We have been developing edamame breeding lines using previously identified accessions and elite soybean varieties. All breeding programs are providing around 20 best edamame lines to regional trials annually, and have around 30 elite lines as genetic stock. For Obj. 3. To release improved edamame cultivars through the evaluation of current large-seeded, advanced grain soybean breeding lines. Nutrient Management. Soil fertility work for this year focused on phosphorus (P) management to investigate needed soil nutrient levels for optimal yield and pod size/quality. Additionally, we investigated different varieties to ascertain whether nutrient needs were different if we had a shorter versus longer season plant. Results indicated legacy soil P levels significantly affected edamame yield (p < 0.001) regardless of variety, even at P fertilizer application rates above recommended maintenance levels for conventional soybeans. This indicated a need to determine appropriate P levels for edamame as a unique vegetable crop rather than relying on soybean fertilization recommendations; which veers from traditional thinking for edamame production. Additional P applications at planting did not affect yields (p = 0.926). Lastly, there was no significant difference in harvest efficiencies (p = 0.23) between tall and short edamame varieties. Variety Development. In 2022, a total of 22 edamame advanced breeding lines developed by Arkansas, Virginia, and Missouri were tested with three replications in the edamame extension trials. The top five lines were selected for further evaluation. A total of 9 Arkansas edamame advanced lines (R15-10280, R17-2965, R17-2776, R18-9770, R18-9794, R18-9808, R14-6450, R13-5042, and R19-411639) were evaluated in the extension test. Four advanced lines (R18-9782, R18-9770, R18-9794, and R19-411639) were evaluated in pre-commercial yield trials in five Arkansas locations. Seven intermediate and 14 preliminary MG 5 edamame lines were tested in Keiser, Rohwer, Pine Tree, Mariana, and Stuttgart with one or two replications. Two elite edamame lines (R20-6395 and R20-6345) were entered in the 2023 edamame extension and advanced tests. Purity seeds of these lines were increased and harvested in Fayetteville, AR. In addition, five edamame breeding populations were grown in Fayetteville and 12 new crosses were made between four Arkansas elite edamame advanced lines and four exotic edamame/large-seeded germplasm/lines. For the ongoing 2023 season, 12 edamame advanced lines developed in Arkansas, Virginia, and Michigan are being evaluated in 3-replications edamame extension trials. For example, four Arkansas edamame lines (R15-10280, R17-2965, R20-6395, and R20-6345) were entered in the extension trial. Three advanced MG 5 edamame lines (R20-6395, R20-6380, and R20-6345) are being evaluated in advanced trials with two replications in four Arkansas locations including Mariana, Pine Tree, Rohwer, and Stuttgart. Purity and seed increase of these lines are being grown in Fayetteville, AR. A total of 183 edamame lines from five large-seeded populations are being evaluated as progeny rows in Kibler, AR. Additionally, six edamame breeding populations are being grown in Fayetteville and off-season nurseries for generation advancement. Six new crosses were made in 2023. For Obj. 4. To disseminate, discuss and educate stakeholders about edamame variety selection and quality attributes, and production practices through extension activities. ? Volatile Analysis Description and Sensory Descriptor Generation of Edamame. We aim to determine the impact of aroma-active compounds in edamame on the consumer experience. Four US edamame cultivars (VT sweet, UA Kirksey, Chiba green, Midori Giant) were planted in 3 different locations (Blacksburg & Painter, VA; Portageville, MO), harvested and processed, including labeling, and blanching prior to freezing for storage. Flavor analysis was performed to extract the impactful volatiles; sensory descriptive analysis was also conducted to develop a list of descriptors for the US edamame market. Descriptor terms and panelists' ratings will be compared to the flavor chemistry results. The key terms generated would be used to communicate edamame-related research and marketing.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2023 Citation: Yu, D., Yang, Z., Jin, Q., Wang, H., Duncan, S., Yin, Y., Zhang, B., OKeefe, S., Davy, B., Huang, H. (2023). Production and properties of soluble dietary fiber from edamame shell using combined physical and chemical treatments
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Li, X., Rideout, S., Strawn, L., Welbaum, G., Kuhar, T., Li, S., Chen, P., Reiter, M., Zhang, B. (2023). Edamame in Virginia II. Producing a High-Quality Product. Virginia Cooperative Extension. Available at: https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/spes/spes-455/SPES-455.pdf.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Li, X., Strawn, L., Huang, H., Yin, Y., Rideout, S., Welbaum, G., Duncan, S., Mille, R., Li, S., Zhang, B. (2023). Edamame in Virginia III. Handling and Processing from Harvest to Package. Virginia Cooperative Extension. Available at: https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/spes/spes-456/SPES-456.pdf.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Reiter, M.S., J.B. Samtani, E. Torres Quezada, V. Singh, H.B. Doughty, T.P. Kuhar, K.L. Sutton, J.M. Wilson, D.B. Langston, S.L. Rideout, J.A. Parkhurst, and L.K. Strawn. 2022. 2022-2023 Mid-Atlantic commercial vegetable recommendations. Publ. SPES-391P. Virginia Cooperative Extension, Blacksburg.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Huimin H., Rebecca Faust, R., Felipe, B., Norambuena, K., Prabhu, R., Smith, T., Li, S., North, C. (2022) Explainable Interactive Projections for Image Data. ISVC 2022: Advances in Visual Computing pp 7790.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2023 Citation: Sutton, K.L., Kuhar, T.P., Rideout, S.L., Taylor, S.V. Reiter, M., DelPozo-Valdivia, A.I., Reisig, D.D., McIntyre, K. (2023) Simple insecticide edamame bean-dip bioassay shows pyrethroid susceptibility of Virginia Helicoverpa zea populations varies across locations and years. J. Entomol. Sci.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Brooks, K., M. Reiter, B. Zhang, and J. Mott. (2023) Edamame yield and quality response to nitrogen and sulfur fertilizers. Agronomy 13(7). doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13071865
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Miller, R., Duncan, S., Yin, Y., Zhang, B., and Lahne, J. (2023). Quantitative texture analysis comparison of three legumes. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14, 1208295. Doi 10.3389/fpls.2023.1208295
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Miller, R., Duncan, S., Strawn, L. (2022). The Emergence of Cyberbiosecurity Concerns in Food and Agriculture. Virginia Cooperative Extension. https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/FST/fst-440/FST-440.pdf
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Li, X., Yin, Y., Strawn, L., Rideout, S., Kuhar, T., Welbaum, G., Li, S., Liu, K., Weckworth, K., Zhang, B. (2023). Edamame in Virginia I. Products and Marketing. Virginia Cooperative Extension. Available at: https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/spes/spes-454/SPES-454.pdf.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Sutton, K.L., D. Wilczek, T.P Kuhar, K. McIntyre, S.L Rideout, B. Zhang. (2022) Evaluation of Insecticides to Control Stink Bug and Broad Headed Bug in Edamame, 2021. Arthropod Management Tests, Volume 47(1) 2022, tsac082, https://doi.org/10.1093/amt/tsac082
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Bradley, S.E., K.L. Sutton, H. Doughty, B. Zhang, K. McIntyre, T.P. Kuhar (2023) Evaluation of selected foliar insecticides against stink bugs in edamame, 2022. Arthropod Management Tests, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2023, tsad069, https://doi.org/10.1093/amt/tsad069
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mark S. Reiter, Jayesh Samtani, Emmanuel Torres Quezada, Vijay Singh, Helene Doughty, Tom P. Kuhar, Kemper Sutton, James Wilson, David B. Langston, Jr., Steve L. Rideout, James Parkhurst, and Laura K. Strawn. 2022-2023 Mid-Atlantic Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations. Virginia Coop. Ext. Publ. 456-420 (SPES-391P). https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/456/456-420/SPES-391.pdf
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Yu, D., Jin, Q., Lin, T., Huang, H., (2022) Producing soluble dietary fiber from edamame shell with improved properties using combined mechanical and chemical treatment. Poster Presentation at the Annual Meeting of Institute of Food Technologist (IFT) First, Chicago, IL, July 10-13, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Allen, J., Yu, D., Wu, J., Yin, Y., Duncan, S., Zhang, B., Wang H., Huang, H.* (2022). A comparative analysis of sucrose and alanine content in different varieties of edamame grown in the United States. Poster Presentation at the Annual Meeting of Institute of Food Technologist (IFT) First, Chicago, IL, July 10-13, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Badon, T., Reiter, M., Zhang, B. & Eick, M. (2022). Edamame Phosphorus Management for the Delmarva Peninsula. In Annual Meetings of the Soil Science Society of America. Baltimore MD.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Miller, R., Duncan, S., Lahne, J., Kuhar, Sutton, K., and Yin, Y. (2023, July 17-18). Influence of Stink Bug Crop Damage on Edamame Bean Quality. [Poster presentation]. IFT FIRST 2023, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Miller, R., Ray, A., Duncan, S., and Yin, Y. (2023, April 3). Learning Materials on Cyberbiosecurity as Applied to Food Science. [Poster Presentation]. Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Student Research Showcase, Blacksburg, VA
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Miller, R., Duncan, S., Lahne, J., Kuhar, Sutton, K., and Yin, Y. (2023, April 21). Influence of Stink Bug Crop Damage on Edamame Bean Quality. [Poster presentation]. FST Seminar, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Sutton, K., Kuhar T., Rideout S., Taylor S., Reisig D. (2022) Evaluation of Evaluating the current susceptibility of corn earworm Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) populations in Virginia to pyrethroid insecticides using bean dip bioassays. Entomological Society of America Eastern Branch Meeting. April 25, 2022, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Miller, R., Duncan, S., Kuhar, T., Sutton, K., Lahne, J., Zhang, B., and Yin, Y. (2023, March 29). Influence of Stink Bug Crop Damage on Edamame Bean Quality. [Poster Presentation]. Graduate and Professional Student Senate Research Symposium, Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Miller, R.J., Duncan, S.E., Yin, Y., Ray, A., Strawn, L. (2022, November 10). Developing Learning Materials on Cyberbiosecurity for Food Science. [Verbal presentation, virtual]. The Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Miller, R.J., Duncan, S.E., Yin, Y., Ray, A. (Spring 2023). Securing the Food Industry: An Introduction to Cyberbiosecurity as Related to Food Science and the Food Industry. [Lecture, asynchronous]. Intro to Biocybersecurity (CYSE 495), Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Miller, R.J., Duncan, S.E., Yin, Y., Ray, A. (2022, December 8). Cyberbiosecurity Intro Course Material Creation for Food Science. [Verbal presentation]. The Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture Graduate Student Affiliate Group Lightning Talks, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Miller, R.J., Duncan, S.E., Yin, Y., Ray, A. (2022, December 2). Securing the Food Industry: An Introduction to Cyberbiosecurity as Related to Food Science and the Food Industry: Adapted for Norfolk CTC Culinary Classes. [Lecture]. Culinary Arts, Norfolk Career and Technology Center, Norfolk, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Clavert, M., Miller, R.J. (2022, October 7). Food Science and the Senses. [Lecture]. Radford High School, Radford, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Miller, R.J., Duncan, S.E., Yin, Y., Ray, A. (2022, September 29). Cyberbiosecurity Intro Course Material Creation for Food Science. [Verbal presentation]. 2022 COVA CCI Cybersecurity Education & Research Conference, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Li, X., & Zhang, B. (2023). Vegetable Soybean and Its Poor Seedling Emergence Issue in The U.S. Orally presented at seminar class of the department of plant science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Li, X., Welbaum, G., Liu, K. Rideout, S. L., Xue, M., & Zhang, B. (2023). Response of the Edamame Germplasm to Early-season Diseases Caused by the Soil-borne Pathogens in the United States. Poster presented at Vegetable & Flower Seed Conference - ASTA, Orlando, FL.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Li, X., Welbaum, G., Liu, K. Rideout, S. L., Xue, M., & Zhang, B. (2023). Response of the Edamame Germplasm to Early-season Diseases Caused by the Soil-borne Pathogens in the United States. Poster presented at Translational Plant Science Symposium, Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Li, X., Welbaum, G., Liu, K. Rideout, S. L., Xue, M., & Zhang, B. (2022). Screening Edamame Cultivars for Resistance to Damping-off Caused by Rhizoctonia solani and Southern Stem Blight Caused by Sclerotium rolfsii. Poster presented at SPES Symposium, Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Badon, T.B. and M.S. Reiter. (2023). Edamame: New crops for Virginia Farmers. Soils and Nutrient Management. Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom Tour. Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Virginia Tech, Painter, VA. Oral Presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Badon, T.B. and M.S. Reiter. (2023). Phosphorus Regimes for Edamame Production. Soils and Nutrient Management. Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom Tour. Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Virginia Tech, Painter, VA. Oral Presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Sutton, Kemper. 2022. Soybean IPM: an update on corn earworm and stink bug pest management. Eastern Shore Agricultural Conference and Trade Show, Melfa, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Li, X., Welbaum, G., Rideout, S. L., & Zhang, B. (2023). Evaluation of Edamame Germplasm to Soil-borne Pathogens in the United States. Poster presented at Soybean Breeder Workshop, St. Louise, MO.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Li, X., & Zhang, B. (2022). Edamame and Biological Seed Treatment. Experience CALS: A day behind the scenes for alumni and friends. ALS Tour, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Li, X., Welbaum, G., Rideout, S. L., & Zhang, B. (2022). Evaluation of seed and seedling vigor of vegetable soybean on emergence. Lighting talks on Soybean Breeders Workshop, Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Li, X. (2022). The opportunity and challenges for biological products in promoting plant development. Elevator talk on annual Nutshell Games organized by the Department of Communication Science, Moss Arts Center.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Yu, D., Chemical composition of edamame beans and valorization of edamame shells. Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Tech, 2022
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Dhakal, K., Application of Machine Learning and Hyperspectral Imaging in Plant Phenomics Research. Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Tech, 2023.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Brooks, K., Nitrogen and Sulfur Management in Soybean and Edamame Production in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, Virginia Tech, 2022
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Wilczek, Daniel Kaye. (2022) The Alydidae (Broad-Headed Bugs) of Virginia and Their Pest Management in Edamame, Masters Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2022.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Sutton, Kemper Lewis. (2023) Developing an Integrated Pest Management Program for Edamame in Virginia. Dissertation, Virginia Tech, 2023.


Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:This project targets a diverse audience including specialty crop farmers, local service providers, extension agents and the bean/edamame processing and marketing industries in Virginia, Arkansas, and surrounding states. The long-term goal of the project is to increase competitiveness and of domestically-produced edamame products with improved sensory attributes, and to become the main supplier in the U.S. and international markets. Therefore, the elements on the supply chain including growers, processors, distributors, and end users are the crucial target audience. The primary audience who benefits from the research presentations and publications are scientists, including: plant breeders in both public and private sectors, food scientists in food processing and nutrition, researchers who are interested in phenomics and genomics, agricultural economics, plant pathology, and entomology, etc. Aside from the aforementioned stakeholders, we were able to increase awareness of edamame and our project within the broader academic and agricultural community in Virginia this year. In particular, some of our Virginia Tech Extension specialists and graduate students educated numerous audiences through a number of extensions talks - including home gardeners, grain and soybean producers, undergraduate students, as well as graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty in Virginia Tech's Translational Plant Science (TPS) program - about edamame, its economic potential, pest management and our team's innovative, cross-disciplinary approach to variety development. Changes/Problems:COVID-19 has continuously caused complications in our research design in the past report period. Fortunately, field crews for the various breeding groups, experimental stations, and locations remain mostly unaffected and were capable of harvesting, gathering data, and providing samples to the Food Science team for chemical analysis while adhering to CDC guidelines (wearing a mask, restricting travel to high risk areas, social distancing when possible, etc.). Most of the projects are done, so only projects in food science, breeding and nutrient management will be conducted in the next report period with one-year non-cost extension. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Throughout the project, graduate students have been responsible for conducting fieldwork, sample processing, assembly of sensory panels, and much of the data collection/analysis. Not only do these opportunities provide valuable opportunities for graduate students on the project to develop teamwork and leadership skills, but also hands-on experience with collecting and analyzing data, preparing manuscripts, publishing in academic journals, and orally presenting their results to a variety of audiences. Students are also present at project meetings, where they are able to observe and participate in discussions pertaining to planning and logistics, experimental design, troubleshooting, and problem-solving. Undergraduate students have also been able to participate in the project to get early experience in conducting their own research projects such as investigation of edamame harvest time and sharing their results with the public through research symposiums and research posters. In 2021, graduate students were invited to form a graduate student affiliates group for the Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture (CAIA). The vision of this group was to assist graduate students to develop transdisciplinary learning in the use of SmartFarm Innovation Network® agricultural technologies, and the cross-cutting research practice of data analytics and cyberbiosecurity. Graduate students work closely with CAIA affiliate faculty. Ms. Rebekah Miller, an FST PhD student on the edamame team, serves as president of the CAIA Graduate Student Affiliates group. She and the executive core of graduate students have assisted numerous students in partnering across disciplines, much as has been emulated in the edamame research group. After assisting with the edamame project as an undergraduate student in 2019, Daniel Wilczek completed his Master's degree in May 2022 where he investigated the biology and pest impact of the Alydus spp. (Alydidae) bugs on edamame. This work drew attention to this rather unknown pest of edamame that appears to be quite important in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. In addition, undergraduate students, Brian Currin and Lucas Raymond have been heavily involved in the extension variety evaluations and pest management experiments. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Insights from our research have been disseminated to vegetable growers in various regions in the state of Virginia, as well as soybean and grain producers, and home gardeners through several extension talks given by faculty and students since the last reporting period. Many scientific manuscripts are currently being prepared or have already been submitted/published in a number of peer-reviewed academic journals. Zhang and Ross are the topic editors of a special issue in Frontiers in Plant Science, Nutrition, and Sustainable Food Systems. The objectives of this Research Topic are 1) to integrate the experts across disciplines to discuss the utilization of innovative research approaches and emerging technologies in addressing critical challenges to enhance edamame productivity and sustainability toward a nutritional and functional vegetable crop for the food industry, and 2) to provide a beneficial resource to researchers and producers who are dedicated on edamame production and economists who value the edamame supply chain as an example for new crops development. Contributors are welcome to submit Original Research, Opinions, and Review Articles in a broad area relevant to edamame breeding, production, and nutrition evaluation. As of August 2022, the special topic has published 13 articles including ten from team members. The special topic has also received a total of 22,000 views from 27 countries, led by the US and China. With leveraged funds, we hosted a national edamame workshop on Dec 1 to 3, 2021, in Charlotte, NC. We have presented our findings in the past few years and received questions on many aspects of the supply chain. The VT Food Science team disseminated the key findings from the projects through oral and poster presentations at different professional conferences, including the 2022 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting, which was attended by many professionals interested in agricultural and food products. We also actively disseminate key findings to draw attention to the Virginia Tech community. During the past year, the VT Food Science Team delivered presentations at the Virginia Tech Department of Food Science and Technology 10th Annual Research Symposium. Moreover, key findings from the project were delivered through publications in mainstream scientific journals, including Food Chemistry and Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Objective 1. We have completed this objective. Objective 2. Plant architecture traits have been collected both manually and automatically and GWAS results have been compared between them. We plan to submit these results along with canopy cover GWAS results in Phenomics journal. Genes identified by GWAS and whole genome sequencing will be evaluated by their biological functions. With the support from a SCRI blockgrant, we plan to use gene editing to alter plant architecture and maturity and test in greenhouse conditions in 2023. Nutrient management will continue to be investigated within the next reporting period. We have nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus plots situated on soils within the vegetable growing region of Virginia. Throughout early fall 2022, we will harvest plots, collect yield data, and subsample marketable pods to test for size, chemical and taste parameters. We will also analyze leaf tissue to detrimental optimal leaf phosphorus concentrations for growth and analyze whole plant tissue to gauge nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus plant uptake. Data will be presented to growers at winter Extension conferences, presented to scientists at conferences, and ultimately analyzed for inclusion in Extension fact sheets and PhD dissertations. Objective 3. We will finish the evaluation of all entries in the extension trials including field adaptation and edamame traits, and select promising lines. We will also make crosses with those promising edamame lines as parental lines. We continue testing 4 US commercial edamame varieties (Midori Giant, Chiba Green, VT Sweet, UA Kirksey) from 3 locations (Blacksburg and Painter, VA, Portagevielle, MO) for sensory attributes and volatile profile. Harvest of above samples has already started. The VT Food Science team will continue to conduct processing, sensory and flavor analysis, and nutritional composition of different edamame varieties, and provide the key information regarding sensory attributes of US edamame. Sensory attribute generation from commercially available US edamame seeds will be performed during 2022-2023. A manuscript on texture analyses of edamame will be submitted. Objective 4. A manuscript entitled "Genome-wide association analysis of sucrose and alaninecontents in edamame bean" will be submitted to the scientific journal Frontiers in Plant Science, Special Research Topic: Everything Edamame: Biology, Production, Nutrition, Sensory and Economics. This manuscript will point out the loci of edamame sugars and alanine on the edamame genome to assist breeding selection. Disseminate relevant research information at the 2023 National Soybean Breeder's Workshop, Plant Genome Conference, state-wide Crop Management conferences in MO (Jan.) and AR (Feb.), and the American Society of Horticultural Sciences annual meeting. The edamame team will continue to disseminate information to growers in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic U.S. through presentations at grower meetings and field days including Eastern Shore Ag Conference and Trade Show (January), Eastern Shore AREC Specialist Day (March), Eastern Shore AREC Field Day (July), and Edamame Field Tour (August).

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For Obj. 1: To identify edamame accessions with large bean size and desired flavor from large-seeded soybean germplasm collected by USDA through characterization and evaluation of their agronomic and edamame quality traits in Mid-South environments. Parental Selection We have completed the selection of edamame accessions as parental lines that have been used in all breeding programs to incorporate large bean-size traits into locally adapted germplasm. Chemical Analysis of edamame compositions In 2021-2022, a project was conducted to aim at predicting the edamame sensory consumer acceptance based on its chemical composition. A deep learning approach was applied to correlate the sensory scores with the chemical compositions of edamame. With several rounds of the improvement of the algorithms, the prediction accuracy has been improved to 85%-90%. This is the first time applying deep learning approach to predict the edamame consumers' preferences based on the major chemical components of edamame. Stink bugs are a major pest concern for edamame crops in the US and can negatively impact edamame production and overall quality. Results from a two-year study indicated stink bug damaged samples showed significantly higher in heptanal, octanal, and nonanal than non-damaged samples, indicating a possible combination of "green", "waxy" and "fatty" notes for edamame samples that experienced insect invasion (Miller et al, unpublished results). A GWAS (Genome-Wide Association Study) was performed to identify genetic markers for sucrose and alanine (Ala) contents in the edamame beans. A total of 45 and 25 SNPs were associated with sucrose content and Ala content in the edamame beans, respectively. Three genes with known effects on the process of sucrose biosynthesis and 37 novel sucrose-related genes were characterized. For Obj 2. To implement desired plant architecture and rapid canopy closure from grain soybeans into edamame accessions with high-quality beans. Phenomics Pod detection on plants. We used deep learning methods such as You Only Look Once (YOLO) and Mask-R-CNN to detect the pods in the edamame plant images. We observed the mean Average Precision (mAP) and accuracy of pod detection on Mask-R CNN and YOLO to be 0.43 and 0.66, and 0.47 and 0.85, respectively. We also have detected the base of the plant in the image using manual labeling and the images have been trained using neural network packages to automatically recognize the base of the plant. Breeding We have continued using grain soybeans with fast canopy closure as parental lines to cross with selected edamame PIs. For Obj. 3. To release improved edamame cultivars through the evaluation of current large-seeded, advanced grain soybean breeding lines. Substantial progress was made towards the project's third objective during this reporting period. Surveys of VA native pests and disease, development of best management strategies, as well as pod/seed phenotyping, yield data collection and sensory panels were conducted on the new set of 15 breeding lines. Using 2020 and 2021 seeds, we have identified eight promising breeding lines. Four of them have been selected for sensory evaluation due to panel list shortage during the pandemic. We look forward to releasing the second edamame cultivar after the 2022 evaluation. Insect/Diseases Pressures & Management In 2021, we initiated a field study to investigate potential pest resistance mechanisms behind the differences in insect response to two edamame genotypes; Virginia genotype V16-0527 showed lower insect numbers (aphids, potato leafhoppers, and Mexican bean beetles) compared with other soy genotypes such as R14-6238, which had significantly more pest pressure. The relationship between cooked edamame bean color, as measured by instrumental analyses, and consumer acceptance and purchase intent were investigated. Acceptability of cooked edamame beans and color characteristics were significantly affected by year in this two-year study. Consumers showed a higher willingness to pay for dark green edamame beans. Green intensity (color index) and the a* color coordinates were correlated to appearance liking scores, which suggests that color data can support breeding selection criteria and possibly predict consumer acceptability. Nutrient Management We have seen trends of increased yield with increased nitrogen and sulfur fertility. When comparing legacy high soil test phosphorus to phosphorus fertilizer additions to investigate soil mining potential of long vs. short season edamame, initial data on legacy phosphorus levels indicated higher rates of soil test phosphorus significantly impacted yield and edamame pod physical characteristics.Based on SPAD and NDVI readings throughout the growing season, it was determined that nitrogen, phosphorus, or sulfur did not overall impact days to maturity. Variety Development Hanover Foods, a company with edamame business for more than 10 years, is growing a few of acres of VT Sweet in 2022. Hopefully, VT Sweet can beat or compliment their current cultivar. In 2021 and 2022, 26 advanced breeding lines developed by Virginia Tech and University of Arkansas were evaluated in VA, AR, MO, and MS. Based on data of fresh yield, 10 pod bean weight, 10 bean yield, pod dimension, the numbers of one, two or three bean pods, sucrose and alanine content as well as pest evaluation, seven breeding lines were moved forward to 2022 plus six lines from VA and Arkansas and seven lines from University of Missouri. In this reportingperiod, the Virginia Tech breeding group has conducted four maturity V edamame trials including 23 entries in preliminary tests, 15 entries in an intermediate test, and 17 entries in a final test. We also grow F1 plants from six combinations, five F2 populations, and six F3 populations in Blacksburg, VA. We also made 15 crosses this summer to continue the breeding effort. The Arkansas breeding group is evaluating seven intermediate and 14 preliminary MG 5 lines that are being tested in Keiser, Rohwer, Pine Tree, Marianan, and Stuttgart with one or two replications. In addition, five edamame breeding populations are currently being grown in Fayetteville and 12 new crosses are being made this summer The Missouri group is conducting maturity III and IV edamame trials including 72 entries in the preliminary test, and nine entries in the final test. Approximately 700 progeny rows from the seven large-seeded populations are being grown in Portageville, MO. For Obj. 4. To disseminate, discuss and educate stakeholders about edamame variety selection and quality attributes, and production practices through extension activities. Data was presented both in-field during research field days and to other stakeholders through Extension winter meetings. The presentations given are documented in the accomplishment section of this report. Early within this reporting period, due to COVID restrictions, virtual field days were recorded and dissemination occurred via the Eastern Shore AREC YouTube channel. We are currently preparing publications to offer a permanent record of project outcomes for farmers, industry, government, and other stakeholders to access. Cyberbiosecurity An open-educational resource for cyberbiosecurity, focused on the food science discipline, was created and posted to help expand cyberbiosecurity for classroom and Extension instruction. This module, 'Securing the Food Industry,' aims to introduce the idea of cyberbiosecurity through a lecture format along with three case studies allowing students to interact and think through the concepts and materials. This module was built for implementation into college-level courses with connection or interest in the food industry, food science, and agriculture as well as technology courses focused on real-world applications.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Carneiro, R., Yin, Y., Duncan, S.E., OKeefe, S.F. (2021) Edamame flavor characteristics driving consumer acceptability in the United States: A review. ACS Food Sci. Technol. 1, 10, 1748-1756. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.1c00261.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Drape, T., Magerkorth, N., Sen. A., Simpson, J., Seibel, M., Murch, R.S., Duncan, S.E. (2021). Assessing the role of cyberbiosecurity in agriculture: A case study. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 9:737927.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Carneiro, R., Drape, T.A., Neill, C.L., Zhang, B., OKeefe, S.F., Duncan S.E. (2022). Assessing consumer preferences and intentions to buy edamame produced in the U.S. Front. Sustainable Food Systems, Nutrition and Sustainable Diets. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.736247
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Han, H., Prabhu, R., Smith, T., Dhakal, K., Wei, X., Li, S., & North, C. (2022). Interactive Deep Learning for Exploratory Sorting of Plant Images by Visual Phenotypes. Proceeding in North American Plant Phenotyping (NAPPN) annual conference. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10508768.2
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Duncan, S.E., Carneiro, R., Braley, J., Hersh, M., Ramsey, F., Murch, R. (2021) Beyond ransomware: Securing the digital food chain. Food Technology Magazine. 75, 9, October.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Drape, T., Magerkorth, N., Sen, A., Simpson, J., Seibel, M., Murch, R. (2021) DataSheet1_Assessing the Role of Cyberbiosecurity in Agriculture: A Case Study.DOCX. Frontiers. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.737927.s001
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kuhar, T., S. Rideout, and K. Sutton added Edamame section to : Reiter, M., Samtani, J., Torres, E., Singh, V., Doughty, H., Kuhar, T., Sutton, K., Wilson, J., Langston, D., Rideout, S., Parkhurst, J., & Strawn, L. (2022). Mid-Atlantic Commercial Vegetable Recommendations. Virginia Cooperative Extension VCE Publ. No. 456-420 (SPES-391P)
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Lopez, L., Tom Kuhar, Sally Taylor, and Kemper Sutton. 2021. Biology and Management of Brown Marmorated Stink Bug in Mid Atlantic Soybean (revision). VCE Publ. No. ENTO-450NP
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Yu, D., Lord, N., Polk, J., Dhakal, K., Li, S., Yin, Y., Duncan, S. E., Wang, H., Zhang, B. & Huang, H. (2021). Physical and Chemical Properties of Edamame during Bean Development and Application of Spectroscopy-based Machine Learning Methods to Predict Optimal Harvest Time. Food Chem, 2022. 368: p. 130799.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Carneiro, R., Adie, K., Yu, D., Beverly, M., Neill, C., Zhang, B., Kuhar, T., Rideout, S., Reiter, M., Huang, H., OKeefe, S., Duncan, S.E. (2022). Understanding the role of overall appearance and color attributes in consumers acceptability of edamame grown in Virginia. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 6:738453. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2022.738453.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Zhang, B., Kuhar, T., Duncan, S., Huang, H., Yin, Y., Reiter, M., Rideout, S., Li, S., Chen, P., Mozzoni, L., Ross, J. (2022) Development of edamame (vegetable soybean) varieties to increase domestic production in Mid-Atlantic region. Oral presentation at American Chemical Society, Hybrid, Chicago, IL, August 21-25, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Miller, R., Carneiro, R., Garbera, S., Yu, D., Wu, J., Duncan, S., Kuhar, T., Zhang, B., Huang, H., OKeefe, S., Yin, Y. (2022) Volatile Analysis of Edamame Varieties. [Poster presentation]. IFT FIRST 2022, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL. July 11-13, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Zhang, B., Kuhar, T., Duncan, S., Huang, H., Yin, Y., Reiter, M., Rideout, S., Li, S., Chen, P., Mozzoni, L., Ross, J. (2022) Development of edamame (vegetable soybean) varieties to increase domestic production in Mid-Atlantic region. Oral presentation at American Chemical Society, Hybrid, Chicago, IL, August 21-25, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Miller, R., Ray, A., Duncan, S., Yin, Y. (2022) Cyberbiosecurity Introductory Course Material Creation for Food Science. [Poster Presentation]. CAIA Big Event, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. March 28, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Miller, R., Smilnak, D., Amorim, S., Srivastava, D., Reis, B., Arinaitwe, U., Bi, Y., Ramsey, F., White, R., and Duncan, S. (2022) Developing the Future Workforce for Agriculture: Creation and Future of Graduate Student Affiliates Groups for Agricultural Innovation. CAIA Big Event, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. March 28, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Duncan, S.E., Zhang, B., Thomason, M., Ellis, M., Meng, N., Stamper, M., Carneiro, R., Drape, T. (2021) Securing data in life sciences  A plant food (edamame) systems case study. Edamame Supply Chain Workshop, December 1-3, 2021. Charlotte, NC. National audience.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Johnson, K., Drape, T.A., Oakes, J., Simpson, J., Westfall-Rudd, D., Duncan, S.E. Interdisciplinary approach to experiential learning in agriculture through workforce development. (2022) Poster presentation at the Inaugural ALCE Mini-Symposium, Co-Creating Transformative Realities through Agriculture, Leadership, and Community Education, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. April 22, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Wang, Z., Yu. D., Dhakal, K., Huang, H., Morota, G., Li, Song., Singer, W., Chen, P., Mozzoni, L., Zhang, B. (2022) Genome-wide association analysis of sucrose and alanine contents in edamame bean. Poster presentation at the ASHS annual conference, Chicago, IL. Aug 2, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Badon, T.B., Reiter, M.S., Zhang, B. Optimizing Phosphorus Application for Edamame Production on the Delmarva Peninsula. (2021) ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT. Oral Presentation. Nov. 8, 2021.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Badon, T.B., Reiter, M.S., Zhang, B. Optimizing Phosphorus Application for Edamame Production on the Delmarva Peninsula. (2021) ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT. Poster Presentation. Nov. 8, 2021.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Badon, T.B., Reiter, M.S., Zhang, B. Potassium and Phosphorus Management in Edamame Production. (2021) Edamame Supply Chain Workshop. Hilton Charlotte Airport, Charlotte, NC. Oral Presentation. Dec. 1, 2021.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Badon, T.B., Reiter, M.S., Zhang, B. (2021) Phosphorus Application Response and Mechanized Harvest Efficiency of Edamame Production on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. SPES Symposium.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Badon, T.B., Reiter, M.S., Zhang, B. (2021) Mechanized Harvest Efficiency of Edamame: Shorter Plants to Increase Adoptability. Horticulture Field Day. Virginia Tech Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Duerksen, K., Reiter, M. S., & Zhang, B. (2021) Nitrogen Rate and Timing Application for Edamame Production on Sandy Loam Soils in the Mid-Atlantic. In ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting. ASA-CSSA-SSSA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Sutton, K., Kuhar T., Rideout S., Doughty H., 2021. A Pest Management Program for Edamame in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. Entomological Society of America National Meeting. November, November 1, 2021, Denver, CO.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Smilnak, D., Scherer, H., Bonnett, E., Vines, K., Westfall-Rudd, D., Duncan, S.E., Simpson, J., Drape, T. (2022) Initiating the rural cyberbiosecurity workforce pipeline through empowering agricultural educators and supporting middle school girls. Poster presentation at the Inaugural ALCE Mini-Symposium, Co-Creating Transformative Realities through Agriculture, Leadership, and Community Education, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. April 22, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Sutton, K., Kuhar T., Rideout S., Taylor S., Reisig D. 2022. Evaluation of Evaluating the current susceptibility of corn earworm Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) populations in Virginia to pyrethroid insecticides using bean dip bioassays. Entomological Society of America Eastern Branch Meeting. April 25, 2022, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Wilczek, D. and T. Kuhar. 2022. Comparison of the feeding damage potential between two Heteropteran pests of edamame (vegetable soybeans). Entomological Society of America Eastern Branch Meeting. April 25, 2022, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Miller, R., Carneiro, R., Garbera, S., Yu, D., Wu, J., Duncan, S., Kuhar, T., Zhang, B., Huang, H., OKeefe, S., Yin, Y. (2022). Volatile Analysis of Edamame Varieties. [Poster presentation]. Virginia, 2022 FST Student Research Presentation Competition, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, April 22, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Allen, J., Yu. D., Wu, J., Yin, Y., Duncan, S., Zhang, B., Wang, H., Huang, H. (2022) A comparative analysis of sucrose and alanine content in different varieties of edamame grown in the United States. . IFT FIRST, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Yu, D., Jin, Q., Lin, T., Wang, H., Huang, H. (2022) Production and properties of soluble dietary fiber from edamame shell using combined physical and chemical treatments. IFT FIRST, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Han, H., Prabhu, R., Smith, T., Dhakal, K., Wei, X., Li, S., & North, C. (2022). Interactive Deep Learning for Exploratory Sorting of Plant Images by Visual Phenotypes. Proceedings at Annual meeting of North American Plant Phenotyping Network. Athens, Georgia, February 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Badon, T.B. (2022) Fertilizer efficiency for grain, oilseed, and innovative vegetable crops. Soils and Nutrient Management. Wandering Virginias Waterways: Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Virginia Tech, Painter, VA. Oral Presentation.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Brooks, K., Reiter, M., Zhang, B. (2021) Edamame Nitrogen Fertility Management. Soybean Field Day 2021. Eastern Virginia Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Warsaw, VA. 23 Sept
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Reiter, M., Zhang, B. (2022) Edamame: What varieties grow best here in Virginia? Eastern Shore Vegetable and Strawberry Field Day. Painter, VA. Jul, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Brooks, K., Zhang, B., Reiter, M., Mason, J. (2022) Edamame Nitrogen and Sulfur Management. Eastern Shore Vegetable and Strawberry Field Day. Painter, VA. Jul, 2022
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Carneiro, R., Duncan, S.E., Ramsey, F., Seyyedhasani, H., Murch, R. (2021) Cyber attacks in agriculture: protecting your farm and small business with cyberbiosecurity. Virginia Cooperative Extension. FST-387NP.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Sutton, K., T. Kuhar, and S. Rideout. (2021). Corn Earworm Insecticide Resistance Southern Piedmont Commercial Pesticide Recertification Meeting, Blackstone, VA. 13 Dec.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Sutton, K., T. Kuhar, and S. Rideout. 2022. Soybean IPM: an update on corn earworm and stink bug pest management. Eastern Shore Agricultural Conference and Trade Show, Belle Haven, VA. 26 Jan.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kuhar, T. 2022. Update on insect pest management in vegetable crops. VA Crop Production Association 2022 Crops Summit - Jan 18-20, 2022.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kuhar, T. and H. Doughty. 2022. Insect control update for vegetables. 2022 NJ Agricultural Convention and Trade Show, Atlantic City, NJ. Feb 8-10.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kuhar, T. and H. Doughty. 2022. Insect control update. Virtual Maryland Vegetable Production Meeting. Virtual. Feb. 8.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kuhar, T. and H. Doughty. 2022. Insect control update. Virtual Maryland Vegetable Production Meeting. Virtual. Feb. 8.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kuhar, T. 2022. Vegetable insect management. Vegetable Production Meeting, Dundas, VA. Feb 16.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kuhar, T. 2022. Insect control update. Richmond and Hanover Vegetable Production Meeting. Richmond, VA. Feb. 20
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kuhar, T. 2022. Insect control update. Vegetable Meeting. Stanardsville, VA. Feb. 23.


Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:This project targets a diverse audience including specialty crop farmers, local service providers, extension agents and the bean/edamame processing and marketing industries in Virginia, Arkansas, and surrounding states. The long-term goal of the project is to increase competitiveness and of domestically-produced edamame products with improved sensory attributes, and to become the main supplier in the U.S. and international markets. Therefore, the elements on the supply chain including growers, processors, distributors, and end users are the crucial target audience. The primary audience who benefits from the research presentations and publications are scientists, including: plant breeders in both public and private sectors, food scientists in food processing and nutrition, researchers who are interested in phenomics and genomics, agricultural economics, plant pathology, and entomology, etc. Aside from the aforementioned stakeholders, we were able to increase awareness of edamame and our project within the broader academic and agricultural community in Virginia this year. In particular, some of our Virginia Tech Extension specialists and graduate students educated numerous audiences through a number of extensions talks - including home gardeners, grain and soybean producers, undergraduate students, as well as graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty in Virginia Tech's Translational Plant Science (TPS) program - about edamame, its economic potential, pest management and our team's innovative, cross-disciplinary approach to variety development. Changes/Problems:COVID-19 has caused complications in our research design in the past report period. Fortunately, field crews for the various breeding groups, experimental stations, and locations remain mostly unaffected and were capable of harvesting, gathering data, and providing samples to the Food Science team for chemical analysis while adhering to CDC guidelines (wearing a mask, restricting travel to high risk areas, social distancing when possible, etc.). For the phenomics study, we have spent most time collecting field data using UAV and cameras. In the coming year of this project, we plan to mainly focus on data analysis and processing. We will use images collected in the past two years to develop pipelines for drone image analysis, shoot architecture parameter extraction and assessment of pod size and maturity using computer vision algorithms. The graduate student funded in this project will mostly be involved in data analytics and programming. For the food sensory study, COVID-19 had caused difficulties to recruit a large number of people to participate in the consumer studies in the past year (2020-2021). With the Covid-19 Delta Variant, we foresee that the same challenge will happen in the year 2021-2022. Large number of participants are needed for an effective statistical analysis. In order to overcome this challenge, we will disseminate the sensory testing flyers via multiple channels (emails, flyers, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) to recruit as many people as possible to conduct the sensory evaluation, meanwhile keep safety in mind. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Throughout the project, graduate students have been responsible for conducting fieldwork, sample processing, assembly of sensory panels, and much of the data collection/analysis. Not only do these opportunities provide valuable opportunities for graduate students on the project to develop teamwork and leadership skills, but also hands-on experience with collecting and analyzing data, preparing manuscripts, publishing in academic journals, and orally presenting their results to a variety of audiences. Students are also present at project meetings, where they are able to observe and participate in discussions pertaining to planning & logistics, experimental design, troubleshooting, and problem-solving. Undergraduate students have also been able to participate in the project to get early experience in conducting their own research projects such as investigation of edamame harvest time and sharing their results with the public through research symposiums and research posters. Justin Polk, one of the undergraduates who worked at Zhang's lab was heavily involved in the edamame harvest time project, He has gained experiences in field work and data collection, and his first peer-reviewed manuscript with Yu et al. was accepted by Food Chemistry Journal. For example, in the food science team, three graduate students and five undergraduate students were involved in edamame processing, nutritional composition analysis, and sensory analysis. Graduate and undergraduate students were provided training on GMP/safety training, unit operation of processing of edamame, operations of lab equipment for nutrition analysis, setting up surveys and evaluating edamame sensory characteristics, and Institutional Review Board preparation for sensory evaluation. Graduate students will also conduct GWAS for pod characteristics traits using the plant introductions and accessions obtained for this project. In addition, canopy closure studies have allowed students to learn about phenotyping via drone and field research has led to learning opportunities for students and staff to improve phenotyping skills, and learn breeding technologies. For the phenomics team, Kshitiz Dhakal (a Ph.D. candidate) was involved in drone phenotyping and collecting images for pod location of edamame plants. Two other graduate students from the computer science department were supported by other grants and were involved in developing image analysis pipelines and collecting images for pod location study. Three undergraduate students (not funded by this project) collaborated with us to develop computer vision algorithms to analyze drone image and pod image data. In addition, canopy closure studies have allowed students to learn about phenotyping via drone and field research has led to learning opportunities for students and staff to improve phenotyping skills. Daniel Wilczek was an undergraduate student in 2019 who assisted in the Entomology and Extension research at Virginia Tech. In fall 2019, he began a graduate program to investigate the biology and pest impact of the Alydus spp. (Alydidae) on edamame, which has not been well researched. He is in his 2nd year investigating these bugs in Virginia on edamame. In addition, undergraduate students, Brian Currin and Lucas Raymond have been heavily involved in the extension variety evaluations and pest management experiments. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Insights from our research have been disseminated to vegetable growers in various regions in the state of Virginia, as well as soybean and grain producers, and home gardeners through several extension talks given by faculty and students since the last reporting period. Many scientific manuscripts are currently being prepared or have already been submitted/published in a number of peer-reviewed academic journals. Zhang and Ross are the topic editors of a special issue in Frontiers in Plant Science, Nutrition, and Sustainable Food Systems. The objectives of this Research Topic are 1) to integrate the experts across disciplines to discuss the utilization of innovative research approaches and emerging technologies in addressing critical challenges to enhance edamame productivity and sustainability toward a nutritional and functional vegetable crop for the food industry, and 2) to provide a beneficial resource to researchers and producers who are dedicated on edamame production and economists who value the edamame supply chain as an example for new crops development. Contributors are welcome to submit Original Research, Opinions, and Review Articles in a broad area relevant to edamame breeding, production, and nutrition evaluation. By August 23, 2021, the special topic has published either articles including seven from this team, and is reviewing one manuscript. The special topic has also received a total of 8,861 reviews including 6,317 article reviews and 1,416 article downloads. The Virginia Tech portion of the edamame team presented the project to the Virginia Tech Agricultural Expo on August 5th, 2021 at Corbin Hall Farm, Waterview, VA. We have received questions on available cultivars and production practices of edamame and many interests from vegetable growers. From the phenomics team, Ph.D. candidate, Kshitiz Dhakal, presented his work in a 10 minutes student presentation titled "Analysis of Shoot Architecture Traits in Edamame Reveals Potential Strategies to Improve Harvest Efficiency" at the NAPPN Annual Conference 2021, Virtual. This is the largest plant phenotyping conference in North America. Mr. Dhakal was selected to give a 10 minutes student presentation among 90 posters submitted to this conference. Only fewer than 15 students were selected to give oral presentations. VT Food Science team disseminated the key findings from the projects through oral and poster presentations in different professional conferences, including the 2021 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting, 2021 American Society of Chemistry Annual Meeting, and Virginia Agriculture Symposium Annual Meeting. All these meetings are well attended with many professionals interested in agricultural and food products. We also actively disseminate key findings to draw attention within the Virginia Tech community. During the past year, VT Food Science Team delivered presentations in the Virginia Tech 37th Graduate Student Association Research Symposium and Exposition, Virginia Tech Department of Food Science and Technology 9th Annual Research Symposium. Moreover, key findings from the project were delivered through three publications in mainstream scientific journals, including Food Chemistry and Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Objective 1. A total of 44 accessions as potential edamame parental lines that were not evaluated by the team before are growing in Virginia, Missouri and Arkansas in 2021. Three breeding programs will evaluate the grain-type traits for adaptation (plant height, lodging, and overall score) and seed quality (seed size, seed appearance, seed quality score, etc.). After this year's evaluation, 15-20 accessions will be planted in more locations for edamame evaluation such as pod and bean weight, bean numbers in pods, bean compositions and sensory evaluation. We will use finalized data to select a list of edamame PIs as parental lines for edamame variety development and share the list with breeders. Objective 2. Plant architecture will be observed for plant height, branching, and distance of first node from ground level. More phenomics data will be collected by cutting plants precisely at ground level and imaging against a black canvas for the 2021 growth season. Edamame pods will be manually labeled and the image will be trained using neural network packages to automatically recognize pod location on the branches. Hyperspectral imaging using VNIR (400-1000nm) and SWIR (900nm-1700nm) will be performed for edamame plant pods and shoot architecture. The hyperspectral data will be used for training computer vision programs. In addition, the phenomics group will submit two manuscripts for review in the next reporting period. The first, will be submitted to Plant Phenomics, will provide a review of software and data management in drone-based phenotyping. The second will be related to the GWAS study for canopy closure and shoot architectures. Objective 3. We continue testing the new set of 15 entries, including VT Sweet and UA Kirksey as checks in the 2021 field season. All 15 entries were planted in May to June 2021 at two locations in VA (Blacksburg and Painter) and two locations in AR (Fayetteville and Newport), as well as Portageville, MO and Stoneville, MS. These entries will be harvested this coming fall and sent to the FST team for sensory evaluation/chemical analysis as in past seasons. VT Food Science team will continue to conduct processing, sensory and flavor analysis, and nutritional composition of different edamame varieties, and provide the key information to the edamame team for selecting elite edamame variety from the end-user point-of-view. Objective 4. A manuscript about determination of possible loci of edamame sugars using a GWAS will be submitted to the scientific journal Frontiers in Plant Science, Special Research Topic: Everything Edamame: Biology, Production, Nutrition, Sensory and Economics. This manuscript will point out the loci of edamame sugars on the edamame genome to assist breeding selection at the molecular level. Two manuscripts about phenotyping and GWAS analysis related to canopy closure and edamame plant characters will be submitted to peer reviewed journals. A pest management manual for edamame in the mid-Atlantic U.S. will be assembled based on knowledge gained of primary pests and pesticide efficacy trials conducted in Virginia. This document will be a numbered Extension Publication that can be accessed by the general public. Disseminate research information with companies and other stakeholders such as Missouri Seed Committee and Missouri Foundation Seed Program that are interested in specialty food-grade soybeans and provide seed samples for evaluations. Disseminate relevant research information at 2022 National Soybean Breeder's Workshop, Plant Genome Conference, state-wide Crop Management conferences in MO (Jan.) and AR (Feb.), American Society of Horticultural Sciences annual meeting, and ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting, etc. The edamame team will continue to disseminate information to growers in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic U.S. through presentations at grower meetings and field days including days, including Eastern Shore Ag Conference and Trade Show (January), Eastern Shore AREC Specialist Day (March), Eastern Shore AREC Field Day (July), and Edamame Field Tour (August).

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For Obj. 1: Parental Selection Using data on pod weight, dimensions, and relative maturity, eight accessions with maturity groups IV, V or VI introduced from other countries were selected to use as parental lines in 2021. These accessions have been crossed with Virginia breeding lines to incorporate large bean size traits into locally adapted germplasm. Chemical Analysis of edamame compositions Food Science team has processed over 270 edamame samples (extension lines grown from five different locations) into beans; conducted sensory and flavor evaluations of edamame from selected extension lines; measured nutritional, sugar (sucrose, glucose, and fructose), sweet amino acid (alanine) of edamame samples. The sugar content of selected edamame lines confirmed the previous year's genotype selection for producing edamame with high sweetness. Sensory analyses of the 2020 varieties were limited due to continued COVID-19 restrictions. Six genotypes were evaluated. No significant effects were found for sensory attributes for overall liking, aroma, taste, sweetness intensity, or texture. Appearance effects (p<0.05) were noted across varieties, which may have been associated with harvest timing. No genotype was fully successful based on sensory outcomes using the decision tree developed in the previous reporting session. Flavor chemistry analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was performed for 10 entries from Painter and Blacksburg, VA and Missouri. Of the analyzed samples, all are showing peaks of pentanal (fermented), hexanal (green, beany), and heptanal (green), and (Z)-2-decenal (fatty), etc. Further efforts are needed to correlate flavor chemistry to sensory evaluation. In 2020-2021, a project aimed at predicting the edamame sensory consumer acceptance based on its chemical composition was conducted Food Science team. In this project, a machine learning approach was applied to correlate the sensory scores with the chemical compositions of edamame. The results revealed that the machine learning approach can predict the consumer sensory scores with a high accuracy, with a R2 between 0.75-0.80. For Obj 2. Phenomics The phenomics group has conducted seven field campaigns/days to collect aerial imagery for edamame fields to evaluate canopy closure starting from 30 day after planting (DAP) and concluded at 80 DAP. We have also performed GWAS study to identify genetic markers associated with fast canopy closure. and identified 13 significant SNPs that are associated with fast canopy closure. We have translated the pod location and shoot structure of edamame plants into a mathematical representation, developed a topology-based approach to comparing plant growth patterns and to evaluate the pod locations on plants that was published in Plant Science Journal, and have also developed machine learning based methods to detect pod maturity based on hyperspectral imaging of edamame pods that was published in Food Chemistry journal. Breeding The F3 populations between selected PIs with large bean size and other desired edamame traits and grain soybeans with fast canopy closure have been developed in order to develop populations for the future release of better edamame varieties. For Obj. 3. Substantial progress was made towards the project's third objectives during this reporting period. Using 2020 seeds, we have identified eight promising breeding lines. Four of them have been selected for sensory evaluation due to panel list shortage during pandemic. Insect/Diseases Pressures & Management Based on insect pest and disease monitoring of the Extension edamame lines (11 food-grade soy genotypes from Virginia or Arkansas), we have found significant differences in pest densities or incidence of certain diseases (Lord et al. 2021). In 2021, we initiated a field study to investigate potential pest resistance mechanisms behind the differences in insect response to two edamame genotypes; Virginia genotype V16-0527 showed lower insect numbers (aphids, potato leafhoppers, and Mexican bean beetles) compared with other soy genotypes such as R14-6238, which had significantly more pest pressure. Such information may prove useful for future breeding for insect resistance in this crop. In 2020 and again in 2021, at two locations in Virginia, our team evaluated the effectiveness of a visual timed scouting program to base insecticide applications following proposed thresholds for potato leafhopper, Mexican bean beetle, defoliators, lepidopteran larvae, and stink bugs. Results have shown that yield of edamame pods has not been significantly different among IPM-plots, conventional sprayed plots, and untreated plots; however, % of pods with insect injury (especially stink bug) was significantly less in both IPM-scouted and conventional plots compared to control. Nutrient Management We have seen trends of increased yield with increased nitrogen fertility. Sulfur treatments have also shown trends of increased yield. Nitrogen or sulfur does not impact days to maturity. Additionally, nitrogen and sulfur fertility did not impact seed or pod physical characteristics (pod dimensions, seed and pod weight, and seeds per pod). Variety Development The Virginia Tech breeding group has conducted four maturity V edamame trials including 31 entries in preliminary tests, 13 entries in an intermediate test, and 16 entries in a final test. The Arkansas breeding group is producing breeder seed of five advanced edamame lines in Stuttgart, AR. Eight final, 8 intermediate, and 54 preliminary lines in maturity group (MG) 5 are being tested in yield trials. The Missouri breeding group has advanced 15 large-seeded, maturity late III to V conventional lines from preliminary yield tests to 2021 advanced yield tests with only one 4-M line being selected from the 2020 progeny rows for the preliminary yield tests in 2021. For Obj. 4. Economics Considerable progress was also made in regards to economic assessment and marketing. An additional study on willingness-to-pay for fresh, local, organic, and on-the-stalk edamame is forthcoming in the Frontiers journal special issue. This is the work that supported the supporting material for grant development. The additional sensory-economic experiments are being analyzed for future publication and grant development. On-farm demonstrations In addition to working with the C&E farms, a major green bean producer on the East Coast, we are currently conducting on-farm research trials to determine the viability and harvest efficiency of using an Oxbo green bean harvester for harvesting edamame. Edamame seed of VT Sweet (2-5 lbs. at each location) were provided to the following locations for observational demonstrations for the growing season of 2021: Adam's Apples and Herbs, Woodstock, VA; Bellair Farm, Charlottesville, VA; Dark Leaf Farms, Concord, VA; Hethwood Market, Blacksburg, VA; and Sarah's Pumpkin Patch, Madison, VA. Cyberbiosecurity This multidisciplinary team of breeders and non-breeder researchers with expertise in crop/food production, processing, quality, and economics served as a case study [focus group] for the importance of data security throughout the agriculture and food chain (Duncan et al., 2020). The study introduces the value chain attributed to combining and linking data from different sectors in the research and development phase and explains why data-sharing mechanisms can facilitate better analyses that resonate throughout the full system, from seed to consumer.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Moseley, D., Da Silva, M. P., Mozzoni, L., Orazaly, M., Florez-Palacios, L., Acu�a, A., ... & Chen, P. (2020). Effect of Planting Date and Cultivar Maturity in Edamame Quality and Harvest Window. Frontiers in plant science, 11, 585856. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.585856.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Moseley, D., Mozzoni, L., Orazaly, M., Florez-Palacios, L., & Chen, P. (2020). Quality of Acid-Preserved Edamame Soybean at Immature and Mature Stages. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 4, 167. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.569625.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Moseley, D., Mozzoni, L., Kaler, A., Mason, R. E., Shi, A., Orazaly, M., ... & Chen, P. (2021). Evaluation of Genetic Diversity and Association Mapping for Seed Weight and Size in Vegetable Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] Germplasm. Crop Science. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20588.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Duncan, S., Zhang, B., Thomason, W., Ellis, M., Meng, N., Stamper, M., Carneiro, R. & Drape, T. (2020). Securing Data in Life Sciences  A Plant Food (Edamame) Systems Case Study. Frontiers in Sustainability. Multi-criteria Decisions Making. Research Topic: Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment for Decision-Making: Stakeholders Opinions and Scenario Analysis. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2020.60039.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Carneiro, R., Duncan, S., OKeefe, S., Yu, D., Huang, H., Yin, Y., Neill, C. & Zhang, B. (2021). Utilizing Consumer Perception of Edamame to Guide New Variety Development. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, section Nutrition and Sustainable Diets. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.556580. A contribution to the research topic Everything Edamame: Biology, Production, Nutrition, Sensory and Economics.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Dhakal, K., Zhu, Q., Zhang, B., Li, M., & Li, S. (2021). Analysis of Shoot Architecture Traits in Edamame Reveals Potential Strategies to Improve Harvest Efficiency. Frontiers in Plant Science, 12, 249.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Lord, N., T. Kuhar., S. Rideout., K. Sutton, A. Alford, X. Li, X. Wu, M. Reiter., H. Doughty. & B. Zhang. (2021). Combining Agronomic and Pest Studies to Identify Vegetable Soybean Genotypes Suitable for Commercial Edamame Production in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. Agricultural Sciences. Agricultural Sciences, 12, 738-754. https://doi.org/10.4236/as.2021.127048.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Lord, N., Zhang, B., & Neill, C. L. (2021). Investigating Consumer Demand and Willingness to Pay for Fresh, Local, Organic, and On-the-Stalk Edamame. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 5, 651505. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2021.651505.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2021 Citation: Zhang, B., Lord, N., Kuhar, T., Duncan, S., Huang, H., Ross, J., Rideout, S., Arancibia, R., Reiter, M., Li, S., Chen, P., Mozzoni, L., Gillen, A., Yin, Y., Neill, C., Carneiro, R., Yu, D., Sutton, K., Li, X., Wang, Z. & Buss. G. (2021). VT Sweet: A Vegetable Soybean Cultivar to Drive Commercial Edamame Production in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. Journal of Plant Registrations (In press).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Yu, D., Lin, T., Sutton, K., Lord, N., Carneiro, R., Jin, Q., Zhang, B., Kuhar, T., Rideout, S., Ross, J., Duncan, S., Yin, Y., Wang, H. & Huang, H. (2021). Chemical Compositions of Edamame Genotypes Grown in Different Locations in the US. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 5, 620426. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2021.620426.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2021 Citation: Yu, D., Lord, N., Polk, J., Dhakal, K., Li, S., Yin, Y., Duncan, S. E., Wang, H., Zhang, B. & Huang, H. (2021). Physical and Chemical Properties of Edamame during Bean Development and Application of Spectroscopy-based Machine Learning Methods to Predict Optimal Harvest Time. Food Chemistry (Accepted for publication).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Li, X., Pollok, J. R., Kuhar, T. P., Sutton, K. L., Rideout, S. L. & Zhang, B. (2020). Diseases associated with edamame production in the mid-Atlantic region. Poster presented at National Association of Plant Breeders Annual Conference, Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Zhang, B., Duncan, S., Kuhar, Tom., Rideout S., Reiter, M. & Li, S. (2021). Edamame, a valuable specialty crop in Virginia. Virginia Ag Expo. August 5, 2021.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Li, X., Liu, K., Welbaum, G.E., Rideout, S., Zhang, B. (2021). Seed vigor and emergence of vegetable soybean (edamame) in Virginia. ASHS annual conference, Denver, Co. August 5-9, 2021.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Sutton, K., Kuhar, T., Rideout, S. & Doughty, H. (2020). Developing an integrated pest management program for edamame in the mid-Atlantic. 2020 Entomology Virtual Meeting: Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, Orlando, FL. November 11-25,2020. Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Wilczek, D. & Kuhar, T. P. (2020). Seasonal biology of two alydid sp. and their pest potential to edamame in Virginia. 2020 Entomology Virtual Meeting: Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, Orlando, FL. November 11-25, 2020. Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Kuhar, T. P. (2021). Insect pest response to vegetable soybean genotypes bred for commercial edamame production in Virginia. 2021 Soybean Breeders Virtual Workshop: Entomology and Breeding Innovation, February 22-24, 2021. https://www.soybase.org/meeting_presentations/soybean_breeders_workshop.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Sutton, K. Kuhar T. P., Rideout, S. & Doughty, H. (2021). Developing an IPM program for edamame in Virginia. Entomological Society of America Eastern Branch Meeting. March 23, 2021. Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Yu, D. Lord, N., Polk, J., Dhakal, K., Li, S., Yin, Y., Duncan, S. E., Wang, H., Zhang, B. & Huang, H. (2021). Physical and chemical properties of edamame over bean development and application of spectroscopy-based machine learning methods to predict optimal harvest time. Virginia Agriculture Symposium Annual Meeting, May, 2021. Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Yu, D., Lord, N., Polk, J., Dhakal, K., Li, S., Yin, Y., Duncan, S.E., Wang, H., Zhang, B. & Huang. H. (2021). Physical and chemical properties of edamame over bean development and application of spectroscopy-based machine learning methods to predict optimal harvest time. ACS Annual Meeting April, 2021. Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Yu, D., Lin, T., Carneiro, R., Sutton, K., Lord, N., Zhang, B., Kuhar, T., Rideout, S., Ross, J., Duncan, S., Yin, Y., Wang, H. & Huang, H. Chemical composition-based machine learning methods to predict sensory attributes of edamame. IFT Annual Meeting July, 2021. Virtual. (Finalist in graduate student competition).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Duncan, S. E., Huang, H., Yin, Y., Carneiro, R.V., Yu, D., Miller, R. & Wu, J. (2020). FST Summary Report (2020). 3rd SCRI-Edamame Advisory Board Meeting, December 14, 2020. Audience: Southern US. Virtual.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Miller, R., Duncan, S., Yin, Y., Kuhar, T. & Sutton, K. (2021). Effect of Stink Bug Feeding on Edamame Flavor Chemistry. VT FST 9th Annual Student Research Competition (Virtual), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, April 23, 2021. 3rd place recipient.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Carneiro, R., Drape T., Neill, C., Zhang, B., OKeefe, S. & Duncan, S. (2021). What motivates consumers to buy and consume edamame in the U.S. 37th GSA Research Symposium and Exposition. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Zhang, B., Duncan, S., Huang, H., Rideout, S., Reiter, M. S., Li, S., & Arancibia, R. A. (2020). V16-0524, a New released edamame cultivar for better adaptation and improved consumer acceptance. In Hortscience Vol. 55 (pp. S158-S159). Amer Soc Horticultural Science. Retrieved from http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000609069200334&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=930d57c9ac61a043676db62af60056c1.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Reiter, M. S., Colson, J., Deitch, U., Duerksen, K., Sutton, K., Rideout, S. & Zhang, B. (2020). Population and fertilizer management for mechanized harvested edamame in the Mid-Atlantic, USA. In Hortscience Vol. 55 (pp. S242). Amer Soc Horticultural Science. Retrieved from http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000609069201106&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=930d57c9ac61a043676db62af60056c1.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Duerksen, K., Reiter, M. & Zhang, B. (2020). Nitrogen rate and timing for edamame production on sandy loam soils in the Mid-Atlantic. In Hortscience Vol. 55 (pp. S138). Amer Soc Horticultural Science. Retrieved from http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000609069200288&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=930d57c9ac61a043676db62af60056c1.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Dhakal, K., Zhu, Q., Zhang, B., Li, M. & Li, S. (2021, February 16-18). Analysis of shoot architecture traits in edamame reveals potential strategies to improve harvest efficiency. NAPPN Annual Conference 2021, Virtual. Student presentation. This is the largest plant phenotyping conference in North America. Mr. Dhakal was selected to give a 10 minute student presentation among 90 posters submitted to this conference https://whova.com/portal/webapp/nappn1_202102/Agenda/1340538.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Non-peer Reviewed or Trade Journal Publications Sutton, K., Doughty, H., Kuhar, T. & Rideout, S. L. (2021). Evaluation of Insecticides to Control Southern Green Stink Bug in Edamame, 2020. Arthropod Management Tests, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2021, tsab081, https://doi.org/10.1093/amt/tsab081.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Dhakal, K., Zhu, Q., Zhang, B., Li, M. & Li, S. (2021, March 5). Analysis of shoot architecture traits in edamame reveals potential strategies to improve harvest efficiency. Annual Symposium of the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virtual. https://app.socio.events/OTE1OQ/Announcements/115373.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Non-peer Reviewed or Trade Journal Publications Wilczek, D. & Kuhar, T. P. (2021). Bioassay Evaluation of Several Insecticide Treatments for Control of Broad-Headed Bug Adults, 2020. Arthropod Management Tests, Volume 46, Issue 1, 2021, tsab063, https://doi.org/10.1093/amt/tsab063.


Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience:This project targets a diverse audience including specialty crop farmers, local service providers, Extension agents and the bean/edamame processing and marketing industries in Virginia, Arkansas, and surrounding states. The long-term goal of the project is to increase competitiveness and consumption of domestically-produced edamame products with improved sensory attributes, and to become the main supplier in the U.S. and international markets. Therefore, the elements on the supply chain including growers, processors, distributors, and end users are the crucial target audience. The primary audience who benefits from the research presentations and publications are scientists including: plant breeders in both public and private sectors, food scientists in food processing and nutrition, researchers who are interested in phenomics and genomics, agricultural economics, plant pathology, and entomology, etc. Aside from the aforementioned stakeholders, we were able to increase awareness of edamame and our project within the broader academic and agricultural community in Virginia this year. In particular, some of our Virginia Tech Extension specialists and graduate students educated numerous audiences through a number of extension talks - including home gardeners, grain and soybean producers, undergraduate students, as well as graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty in Virginia Tech's Translational Plant Science program - about edamame, its economic potential, pest management and our team's innovative, cross-disciplinary approach to variety development. Changes/Problems:Dr. Neill is no longer an assistant professor at Virginia Tech but retains an adjunct appointment. Dr. Neill has agreed to continue working on the project, but no longer holds an extension appointment which will limit his ability to distribute his materials through extension services. Distribution of his materials will now fall to the rest of the extension group. His responsibilities will continue to be the collection and analysis of relevant economic data. Computer vision algorithms YOLOv2 and v3 were proposed in our original proposal. However, after the analysis of first year's data, these methods could not identify pod locations on edamame branch. To solve this problem, we have purchased a higher resolution digital camera from the fund of this project. We also secured external funding from other sources to purchase hyper-spectral cameras that can be used to generate imaging data with high spectral resolution. These imaging devices will be used to scan edamame plants to locate pods in the plant and to evaluate the maturity of edamame. COVID-19 may cause unforeseen complications in our research design this coming Fall. Fortunately, field crews for the various breeding groups, experimental stations, and locations remain mostly unaffected and should still be capable of harvesting, gathering data, and providing samples to the FST team for chemical analysis while adhering to CDC guidelines (wearing a mask, restricting travel to high risk areas, social distancing when possible, etc). One aspect of the project that may be particularly affected by COVID-19 this year is sensory evaluation. For effective statistical analysis, large numbers of participants are needed each day that sensory panels are held. In lieu of COVID-19, we may face difficulty in obtaining the number of participants for each panel that are required for effective analysis. In addition, our plans to hold an on-site field day for the edamame this Fall are no longer possible. To circumvent this issue, we plan to use our Youtube channel to upload extension talks regarding edamame management practices and economics that can be more easily disseminated in a virtual format to the target audiences. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Throughout the project, graduate students have been responsible for conducting fieldwork, sample processing, assembly of sensory panels, and much of the data collection/analysis. Not only do these opportunities provide valuable opportunities for graduate students on the project to develop teamwork and leadership skills, but also hands-on experience with collecting and analyzing data, preparing manuscripts, publishing in academic journals, and orally presenting their results to a variety of audiences. Students are also present at project meetings, where they are able to observe and participate in discussions pertaining to planning & logistics, experimental design, troubleshooting, and problem-solving. Undergraduate students have also been able to participate in the project to get early experience in conducting their own research projects such as investigation of edamame harvest time and sharing their results with the public through research symposiums and research posters. For example, in food science team, two graduate students and fifteen undergraduate students were involved in edamame processing, nutritional composition analysis, and sensory analysis. Graduate and undergraduate students were provided trainings on GMP/safety training, unit operation of processing of edamame, operations of lab equipment for nutrition analysis, setting up surveys and evaluating edamame sensory characteristics, and Institutional Review Board preparation for sensory evaluation. For the phenomics team, Kshitiz Dhaka (a PhD candidate) was involved in drone phenotyping and collecting images for pod location of edamame plants. Two other graduate students were partly funded by this project and were involved in developing image analysis pipelines and collecting images for pod location study. One master student and one undergraduate student (not funded by this project but involved) collaborated with us to develop robotics/drone platforms for field phenotyping that will be applied to data collection for edamame research. In addition, graduate students will conduct GWAS for pod characteristics traits using the plant introductions and accessions obtained for this project. In addition, canopy closure studies have allowed students to learn about phenotyping via drone and field research has led to learning opportunities for students and staff to improve phenotyping skills, and learn breeding technologies. Daniel Wilczek was an undergraduate student in 2019 who assisted the entomology and Extension research at Virginia Tech. In fall 2019, he began a graduate program to investigate the biology and pest impact of the Alydus spp. (Alydidae) on edamame, which has not been well researched. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Insights from our research have been disseminated to vegetable growers in various regions in the state of Virginia, as well as soybean and grain producers, and home gardeners through several extension talks given by faculty and students since the last reporting period. Many scientific manuscripts are currently being prepared or have already submitted/published in a number of peer-reviewed academic journals. In fact, many researchers from our team have had abstracts accepted by Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Special Research Topic: Everything Edamame: Biology, Production, Nutrition, Sensory and Economics, an internationally recognized peer-reviewed journal, to which they will submit final manuscripts August 30th. This will further disseminate our findings to the greater international scientific community in a wide number of disciplines. The Virginia Tech portion of the edamame team presented the project to the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences External Advisory Board (October 2019) through an interactive series of presentations and discussions. The External Advisory Board consists of national leaders in agribusiness, commodity organizations, and food industry. VT Food Science team has periodically corresponded to the rest of the research team and the advisory group regarding results on flavor/nutritional constituents and sensory quality in breeding lines to assist in the decision-making process. VT Food Science Team has developed a decision tree for identifying variety recommendations that are meeting consumer expectations. This tool has been used by the sensory scientists to identify recommendations to the edamame breeder to make decisions about variety release and selections of varieties for further development. This was presented to the Department of Food Science and Technology and the Virginia Tech graduate student population through poster sessions. This tool has been described in a submitted manuscript [under review]. Color measurements of beans have been identified as a means to identify bean quality for consumer acceptability. This research was shared with a national audience of plant scientists/horticulturalists. VT Food Science Team has also presented the protocols of edamame processing (pre-washing, blanching, de-watering, and shelling) and nutritional profiles of edamame to the public via poster presentation, extension publications, communication with industrial professionals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Objective 1. Nine accessions have been planted in Blacksburg, and will be harvested throughout September-October 2020. Following harvest, samples will be mailed or delivered to the Food Science team where they will be cleaned, blanched, freeze-dried, analyzed for sugar and amino acid content via HPLC instrumentation, and subsequently cooked and served to panels for sensory evaluation at Virginia Tech Sensory Lab as it was in 2019. This data will be compared with 2019 data to identify accessions exhibiting sugar and amino acid profiles with highest consumer acceptance across years and locations and help select the lines to be used as parents for future crossings in 2021. We will use finalized data to select a list of edamame PIs as parental lines for edamame variety development and share the list with breeders. Objective 2. Plant architecture will be observed for plant height, branching, and distance of first node from ground level. More phenomics data will be collected by cutting plants precisely at ground level and imaging against a black canvas for the 2020 growth season. Edamame pods will be manually labeled using LabelImg package and the image will be trained using neural network package R-CNN and mask RCNN to automatically recognize pod location on the branches. A separate population of elite grain soybeans were planted for canopy closure evaluation via drone imaging using DJI Matrice 100 and DJI Inspire 2 mounted with Micasense RedEdge multi-spectral sensors in 2021. Drone imaging data from both locations will be compared and used to select varieties exhibiting fastest canopy closure at both locations for evaluation in 2021. Varieties and PI's that exhibit favorable plant architecture and canopy closure characteristics will be used as parents for crossing in 2021. Hyperspectral imaging using VNIR (400-1000nm) and SWIR (900nm-1700nm) will be performed for edamame plant pods and shoot architecture. The hyperspectral data will be used for computer vision programs. In addition, the phenomics group will submit two manuscripts for publication in the next reporting period. The first, which will be submitted to Frontiers Special Issue "Everything Edamame", will cover how the analysis of shoot architecture traits in edamame has revealed potential strategies to improve harvest efficiency. The second, which will be submitted to Plant Phenomics, will provide a review of software and data management in drone-based phenotyping. Objective 3. A new set of 15 entries, including V16-0524 and UA Kirksey as checks, was created for 2020's field season. All 15 entries were planted in May 2020 at two locations in VA (Blacksburg and Painter) and two locations in AR (Fayetteville and Newport), as well as Portageville, MO and Stoneville, MS. These entries will be harvested this coming fall and sent to the FST team for sensory evaluation/chemical analysis as in past seasons. VT Food Science team will continue to conduct processing, sensory and flavor analysis, and nutritional composition of different edamame varieties, and provide the key information to the edamame team for selecting elite edamame variety from the end-user point-of-view. Three manuscripts are currently under review for publication in Frontiers Special Issue "Everything Edamame" from the University of Arkansas breeding team titled "Effect of planting date and cultivar maturity in edamame days-to flower and harvest window", "Quality of acid-preserved edamame soybean at immature and mature stages", and "Evaluation of genetic diversity and association mapping for seed wight and size in vegetable soybean." The Virginia Tech breeding and entomology group are also preparing a manuscript entitled "Combining agronomic and pest studies to identify large-seeded soybean genotypes suitable for commercial edamame production in the Mid-Atlantic region" that will also be submitted to Frontiers Special Issue "Everything Edamame" later this month. A manuscript about determination of chemical compositions of different edamame genotypes grown in different locations will be submitted to the scientific journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Special Research Topic: Everything Edamame: Biology, Production, Nutrition, Sensory and Economics. This manuscript will point out the nutritional composition difference of edamame planted at different locations and will demonstrate the potential of using chemical compositions to predict the sensory sweetness by a machine learning approach. A manuscript on utilizing consumer perception of edamame and the sensory decision tree to guide new variety development is under review in Frontiers Special Issue "Everything Edamame". We anticipate successfully moving this manuscript into publication for sharing with plant and food scientists, nutritionists, ecologists, and others interested in sustainability. Objective 4. A manuscript containing the results of the second sensory-economic WTP study will be written and submitted for publication. In addition, data collection and analysis of the potential profitability of mechanical harvesting edamame with new varieties will be conducted. This study will help estimate actual loss due to mechanical harvesting and if there is a reduction in loss with the new varieties. A manuscript on securing data in life sciences based on a plant food (edamame) systems case study will be submitted to the scientific journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Special Research Topic: Everything Edamame: Biology, Production, Nutrition, Sensory and Economics. This manuscript will showcase the relationship of data sharing and security in the edamame research and development phase contributes to improved varieties and increased value for domestic edamame growers. A pest management manual for edamame in the mid-Atlantic U.S. will be assembled based on knowledge gained of primary pests and pesticide efficacy trials conducted in Virginia. This document will be a numbered Extension Publication that can be accessed by the general public. The edamame team will continue to disseminate information to growers in the southeastern and Mid-Atlantic U.S. through presentations at grower meetings and field days.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For Obj. 1: To identify edamame accessions with large bean size and desired flavor from large-seeded soybean germplasm collected by USDA through characterization and evaluation of their agronomic and edamame quality traits in Mid-South environments. Parental Selection Using data on pod weight, dimensions, and relative maturity, five PI's were selected to use as parental lines for crossing in 2020. All PI's had a 10-pod weight of approximately 25g as well as pod length between 55-60mm and thickness between 10-14mm. These PI's are currently being crossed with Virginia breeding lines to incorporate large bean size traits into locally adapted germplasm. Chemical Analysis of edamame compositions Food Science team has processed over 1,000 edamame samples (GWAS population and extension lines grown from five different locations) into beans via pre-washing, blanching, de-watering, and shelling, conducted sensory evaluations of edamame from extension lines grown to understand the consumer perceptions on different edamame varieties; measured nutritional and the sweetness (sucrose, glucose, fructose, and alanine) of edamame samples, and provided recommendations, based on the sensory information, to breeders to assist with decision making for variety selection and field trials. The generated sensory and nutritional information was used to guide the breeding groups to select elite variety for future planting. The analysis of 2nd year samples are being conducted (delayed by COVID-19), so the list of PIs with large bean size and desired flavor will be finalized at the end of 2020. For Obj 2. To implement desired plant architecture and rapid canopy closure from grain soybeans into edamame accessions with high quality beans. Phenomics The phenomics group has conducted 28 field campaigns/days to collect aerial imagery for edamame fields to evaluate canopy closure. We collected 6,755 aerial images during the edamame growth season in 2020, which covers > 1,000,000 data points with one data point accounting for one plot at the given survey date, and selected six grain soybean varieties with fast canopy closure. We have translated the pod location and shoot structure of edamame plants into a mathematical representation. We also have developed a topology-based approach to comparing plant growth patterns and to evaluate the pod locations on plants. The second most important feature is how "open" the branches are. Breeding The crosses between selected PIs with large bean size and other desired edamame traits and grain soybeans with fast canopy closure have been made in order to develop populations for the future release of better edamame varieties. For Obj. 3. To release improved edamame cultivars through the evaluation of current large-seeded, advanced grain soybean breeding lines. Insect/Diseases Pressures & Management With regards to pests, soybean aphid (Aphis glycines) and downy mildew (Peronospora manshurica) were particularly prevalent in 2018, and Mexican bean beetle (Epilachna varivestis), potato leafhopper (Empoasca fabae), a complex of stink bug species (Pentatomidae), and bacterial incidence was more prevalent in 2019 in Virginia. For each of these insects/diseases, significant differences in pest densities or disease incidence were observed among the genotypes. With regards to pest management, research conducted at two locations in Virginia showed that spraying insecticides only after sampling thresholds were reached resulted in similar yields and pod damage compared with multiple preventative insecticide applications that represent a conventional grower approach. Moreover, at one of the locations, both control strategies resulted in significantly higher yields and reduced damage compared with the untreated control. Variety Development The VA breeding group was able to release V16-0524, which appears to be a better commercial edamame cultivar than current available edamame varieties for Mid-Atlantic region. In addition, six advanced edamame lines are being evaluated in extension trials across three states. In 2020, the VA breeding group has made 30 cross combinations between elite grain soybean varieties with fast canopy closure and plant introductions with desirable edamame traits for future development of edamame varieties with even better adaptation, mechanic harvest, and consumer acceptance. The Arkansas breeding group are producing breeder seed of eleven advanced edamame lines in Fayetteville. Twelve preliminary and 12 intermediate maturity group (MG) 5L lines are being tested in Rohwer and Stuttgart with one replication each. Purity rows of these lines are being grown in Fayetteville. A total of 295 progeny rows are being grown in Stuttgart for this project. Selections based on overall field appearance will be made at maturity. In addition, 3 F1 and 2 F5 edamame breeding populations are currently being grown in Fayetteville. Crosses are being made this summer between four edamame/large-seed advanced lines and an elite conventional line. The MO breeding group has advanced 31 large-seeded, conventional progeny rows to preliminary yield tests. In addition, they have planted another 396 progeny rows this year, from which they will select another set of progeny rows to be advanced to preliminary yield testing in 2021. Overall, the MO breeding group was able to establish an edamame program from scratch that can potentially serve the Mid-Atlantic in the coming years. For Obj. 4. To disseminate, discuss and educate stakeholders about edamame variety selection and quality attributes, and production practices through extension activities. Economics Considerable progress was also made in regards to economic assessment and marketing. A second willingness-to-pay (WTP) study in conjunction with sensory evaluation was conducted during this reporting period. This experiment examined the tradeoff between consumer preferences for organic and non-GMO edamame production and actual sensory attributes. This study was used to confirm actual sensory responses and the original consumer preference survey conducted in 2018. We found that consumers were willing to pay $6 for an organic salad versus a non-GMO salad. We also found that salty was the highest valued taste attribute, with sweet being the second highest alternative. The flavors of bitter, nutty, and grassy are all associated with negative WTP values. This suggests that, for marketing purposes, organic edamame with salty or sweet flavors will increase the demand for edamame. In addition, the 2018 manuscript on consumer willingness-to-pay was submitted for publication. The results of the first sensory-economic WTP study are accepted for publication in a special issue of the Frontiers journal in conjunction with the sensory evaluation. Another economics article was submitted to the special issue on the risks, challenges, and potential of edamame as a profitable alternative for U.S. producers. On-farm demonstrations This past reporting season, we were able to build a relationship with the C&E farms, a major green bean producer on the East Coast. We are currently conducting on-farm research trials to determine the viability and harvest efficiency of using an Oxbo green bean harvester for harvesting edamame. Cyberbiosecurity In November 2019, a Cyberbiosecurity project team [Duncan, PI; Zhang (co-PI)] met with the SCRI edamame transdisciplinary agricultural research team (2 hrs) to gather data using this agriculture and food system project as an illustration of life sciences data generation, management, sharing, and training needs. This information was presented at the Virginia Tech Cyberbiosecurity and SmartFarm Innovation Network annual meeting [January 2020; 25 participants; oral presentation] and the virtual Virginia Tech undergraduate research conference [April 2020; poster presentation 'Cyberbiosecurity case studies & data analysis'].

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Carneiro, R.C.V., Duncan, S.E., OKeefe, S.F., Yin, Y., Neill, C.L., & Zhang, B. (2020). Sensory and Consumer Studies in Plant Breeding: A Guidance for Edamame Development in the U.S. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, in the research topic Everything Edamame: Biology, Production, Nutrition, Sensory and Economics. doi:10.3389/fsufs.2020.00124; https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00124/full
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Dhami, Harnaik, Kevin Yu, Tianshu Xu, Qian Zhu, Kshitiz Dhakal, James Friel, Song Li, and Pratap Tokekar. (2020). Crop Height and Plot Estimation for Phenotyping from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles using 3D LiDAR. Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2020). June 30th, 2020. This paper describes a computational pipeline to identify small plots from airborne LiDAR images that will be used for edamame shoot structure analysis.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Dhami, H., Yu, K., Xu, T., Zhu, Q., Dhakal, K., Friel, J., Li, S., and Tokekar, P. (2020). Crop Height and Plot Estimation for Phenotyping from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles using 3D LiDAR. Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2020). June 30th, 2020. This paper describes a computational pipeline to identify small plots from airborne LiDAR images that will be used for edamame shoot structure analysis.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Sutton, K.L., Kuhar, T.P., Rideout, J.P., and Zhang, B. (2020). Evaluation of Insecticides to Control Stink Bug in Edamame, 2019, Arthropod Management Tests, Volume 45, Issue 1, 2020, tsaa045, https://doi.org/10.1093/amt/tsaa045
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Extension Publication Carneiro R, Yu D, Huang H, OKeefe S, Duncan S. (2020). Edamame Processing: What do I need to know about it? Virginia Cooperative Extension Publ. No. FST-371; 4 pages. https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/FST/fst-371/FST-371.pdf.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Adie, K., Carneiro, R., Yu, D., Zhang, B., Duncan, S. 2020. Color differences in edamame resulting from genotype and changing harvest conditions. Poster presented at VT FST 8th Annual Student Research Presentation Competition (Virtual). 1st place in Undergraduate Research Awards competition.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Carneiro, R., Adie, K., Yu, D., Anwyll, T., Beverly, M., Neill, C., Zhang, B., OKeefe, S., Duncan, S. 2020. Color and appearance hedonics to assist breeding selection of edamame (vegetable soybean) varieties. Poster presented at American Society for Horticultural Scientists Annual Conference (Virtual).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Carneiro, R., Yu, D., Zhang, B., OKeefe, S., Duncan, S. 2020. Sensory studies support selection of edamame genotypes for U.S. production. Poster presented at VT FST 8th Annual Student Research Presentation Competition (Virtual).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Carneiro, R., Yu, D., Zhang, B., OKeefe, S., Duncan, S. 2020. Sensory evaluation supports selection of edamame varieties for U.S. production. Flash talk (5 min video) presented at 36th GSA Research Symposium and Exposition (Virtual).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dhakal, K., Zhu, Q., Friel, J., Edwards, C., Donovan, P., Zhang, B., Li, S. 2019. Edamame canopy cover study using drone images. Poster presented at SPES Mini-Symposium. Blacksburg, VA
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Duerksen, K., Reiter, M., Zhang, B. 2020. Nitrogen rate and timing for edamame production on sandy loam soils in the Mid-Atlantic. Poster presented at American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Conference (Virtual).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Li, Z., Dhakal, K., Yan, H., Friel, J., Zhu, Q., Oaks, J., Li, S. 2019. Counting corn stand using drone images: a deep learning object detection approach. Poster presented at SPES Mini-Symposium. Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Li, X., Pollok, J. R., Kuhar, T. P., Sutton, K. L., Rideout, S. L., Zhang, B. 2020. Diseases associated with edamame production in the mid-Atlantic region. Poster presented at American Society for Horticultural Scientists Annual Conference (Virtual).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Lord, N. 2019. Understanding consumer familiarity and willingness-to-pay for vegetable soybean (edamame) marketed as fresh, local, USDA certified organic, or on-the-stalk. Oral presentation at SPES Mini-Symposium. Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Lord, N. 2020. Feasibility, consumer demand, and variety development for vegetable soybean (edamame) in the Mid-Atlantic region. Oral presentation at Virginia Grain & Soybean Conference. Richmond, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Lord, N. 2020. Investigating the economic potential of fresh market edamame in the Mid-Atlantic region. Oral presentation at Virginia Tech Translational Plant Science Mini-Symposium. Blacksburg, VA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Reiter, M., Colson, J., Deitch, U., Duerksen, K., Sutton, K., Rideout, S., Zhang, B. 2020. Population and fertilizer management for mechanized harvested edamame in the Mid-Atlantic, USA. Oral presentation at American Society for Horticultural Scientists Annual Conference (Virtual).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Rideout, S. L., Pollok J. R., Zhang, B., Kuhar, T. P., and Sutton, K. L. 2019. Evaluation and identification of edamame pod diseases in Virginia. American Phytopathological Society National Meeting. Denver, CO.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Sutton, K., Kuhar T., Rideout, S., Doughty, H., Pollok, J. 2019. Evaluation of insect pests and damage on edamame at Virginia Tech. Entomological Society of America National Meeting. St. Louis, MO.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Yu, D., Sutton, K., Pollok, J., Lord, N., Carneiro, R., Zhang, B., Kuhar, T., Rideout, S., Ross, J., Duncan, S., Yin, Y., Wang, H., Huang, H. 2020. Determination of chemical compositions of different edamame varieties grown in different locations. FST 3- minute talk presented at VT FST 8th Annual Student Research Presentation Competition (Virtual).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Yu, D., Sutton, K., Pollok, J., Lord, N., Carneiro, R., Zhang, B., Kuhar, T., Rideout, S., Ross, J., Duncan, S., Yin, Y., Wang, H., Huang, H. 2020. Determination of chemical compositions of different edamame varieties grown in different locations. Abstract accepted by ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Exposition (Event not held due to COVID-19).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Zhang, B., Duncan, S., Huang, H., Rideout, S., Reiter, M., Li, S., Chen, P., Mozzoni, L., Ross, J., Arancibia, R. 2020. V16-0524: A new released edamame cultivar for better adaptation and improved consumer acceptance. Oral presentation at American Society for Horticultural Scientists Annual Conference (Virtual).


Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:This project targets a diverse audience including specialty crop farmers, local service providers, Extension agents and the bean/edamame processing and marketing industries in Virginia, Arkansas, and surrounding states. The long-term goal of the project is to increase competitiveness and consumption of domestically-produced edamame products with improved sensory attributes, and to become the main supplier in the U.S. and international markets. Therefore, the elements on the supply chain including growers, processors, distributors, and end users are the crucial target audience. The primary audience who benefits from the research presentations and publications are scientists including: plant breeders in both public and private sectors, food scientists in food processing and nutrition, researchers who are interested in phenomics and genomics, agricultural economics, plant pathology, and entomology, etc. We also impact a broader audience. A presentation by one of the graduate students, Kemper Sutton at the Virginia Academy of Sciences meeting educated faculty and students from institutions of higher learning in Virginia about the importance of edamame and showcased our research. Another presentation by Kemper Sutton at the Eastern Branch Entomological Society of America Meeting addressed 300 entomologists from the eastern U.S. News articles and videos about the project informed a broader audience, including potential consumers of edamame, about the research being done. Changes/Problems:Some unforeseen issues arose during the first (2018) field season. As previously mentioned, one of the greatest challenges has been harvest timing that is currently based on subjective measures such as feel and visual appearance. This has presented an additional challenge to the Food Science group in separating differences in harvesting time (maturity) from the sensory, sugar, and amino acids profile of different edamame varieties. This has also hindered our ability to determine proper timing for mechanical harvest. Nevertheless, the aforementioned research on elucidating optimal harvest timing bodes well to resolve these issues. We also realized the importance of preventing deer and other wildlife from feeding on the edamame field plots. Deer fencing is a necessity for field plots at our Virginia locations. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Food science sensory analysis provided graduate and undergraduate students experience in setting up surveys and evaluating edamame sensory characteristics. A set of Plant Introductions was planted at three locations in 2019 to study pod characteristics and eventually conduct GWAS for traits recorded. Canopy closure studies have allowed students to learn about phenotyping via drone. Field research has led to learning opportunities for students and staff to improve phenotyping skills, and learn breeding technologies. Presenting at conferences and extension meetings also gave students opportunities to interact with peers, growers, etc., and to build up their professional speech skills. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Extension groups have disseminated information on the insect and disease pest incidence on edamame at several scientific, educational, and Extension venues in 2019. Within the project team, we held one meeting in Baltimore, Nov 2-3, 2018 for all project participants (13 attendees), one meeting in Blacksburg, VA, Dec 6-7 for all participants and the SCRI Edamame Grant Advisory Board (22 attendees), three conference calls for all project participants on Sept 28, 2018, March 27, 2019 and June 12, 2019. Each team on the project (breeding, Extension, food science, etc.) has met as needed to discuss protocols for upcoming project activities. We have established project website, https://edamameproject.weebly.com/, and a Facebook page (USDA Edamame Project at Virginia Tech) with 140+ followers to provide timely updates on our research progress and to advertise our sensory evaluations. Also, reported in our Outputs, we have published three numbered Extension publications through the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service website for public review. News video and articles on local channel and Virginia Tech news have provided our project with much publicity in the community. The Virginia Tech Food Science team has periodically corresponded to the rest of the research team and the advisory group regarding results on flavor/nutritional constituents and sensory quality in breeding lines to assist in the decision-making process. Information about the breeding, field trials, and canopy closure have been disseminated to other scientists via poster presentations, and early information has been made available to potential edamame consumers via brochure and will also be available to potential growers via an upcoming field day. The economics group has been disseminating information and educating stakeholders about production and economic practices through extension activities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Objective 1. 39/46 of large-seeded accessions being evaluated for consumer acceptance were recovered in 2018. All 39 accessions have been planted in Blacksburg, Arkansas, and Missouri and will be harvested throughout September-October 2019. Following harvest, samples will be mailed or delivered to the Food Science team where they will be cleaned, blanched, freeze-dried, analyzed for sugar and amino acid content via HPLC instrumentation, and subsequently evaluated for sensory quality through taste testing via the Virginia Tech Sensory Lab as it was in 2018. This data will be compared with 2018 data to identify accessions exhibiting sugar and amino acid profiles with highest consumer acceptance across years and locations to be used as parents for future crossings in 2020. In addition, increase plots for the 39 accessions were also planted in 2019 at all three locations and will be harvested for seed at the end of the growing season. Of the 302 plant introductions (GWAS population) planted in 2018, only 131 were recovered for 2019 planting due to poor emergence in the field. These 131 have been planted in Blacksburg, Arkansas, and Missouri and will also be harvested between September and October 2019, transferred to the Food Science team, and evaluated for sugar and amino acid content using HPLC just as in 2018. The resulting HPLC data will be combined with 2018 data to provide phenotypic data for two years and 3 locations (5 environments total). Phenotypic data will be combined with known genotypic data for genome wide analysis in 2019 to identify marker-trait associations for flavor profiles with high consumer acceptance identified by the 39 aforementioned large-seeded accessions. If highly significant marker-trait associations can be identified through genome wide analysis, they can permit the development of tightly linked molecular markers for flavor that can be used in future breeding efforts. Objective 2. Plant architecture will be observed for plant height, branching, and distance of first node from ground level. Phenomic data will be ascertained by cutting plants precisely at ground level and imaging against a black canvas. Varieties from large-seeded grain soybeans being evaluated for cultivar release (aka extension varieties) as well as PI's from the aforementioned GWAS population will be used as training set for phenomics analysis in subsequent years. Edamame pods will be manually labeled using LabelImg package and the image will be trained using neural network package YOLO2/3 to automatically recognize pod location on the branches. A separate population of elite grain soybeans were planted for canopy closure evaluation via drone imaging using DJI Matrice 100 and DJI Inspire 2 mounted with Micasense RedEdge multi-spectral sensors in 2019 at two locations in Virginia (Blacksburg and Warsaw). Drone imaging data from both locations will be compared and used to select varieties exhibiting fastest canopy closure at both locations for evaluation in 2020.Varieties and PI's that exhibit favorable plant architecture and canopy closure characteristics will be used as parents for crossing in 2020. Objective 3. Of the 23 large-seeded grain soybeans being evaluated for cultivar release in 2018, 11 were identified to exhibit the best agronomic and sensory performance. These 11 varieties were planted in 2019 at one research locations in Arkansas (Little Rock?), one location in Mississippi (Stoneville) and two research locations in Virginia (Blacksburg and Painter). During the growing season, these varieties are currently being evaluated for stand count, insect damage, and fungal/bacterial disease susceptibility. They will be harvested between September and October 2019 and mailed/delivered to the Food Science team for processing, sugar and amino acid analysis, and sensory evaluation just as in 2018. Using combined 2018 and 2019 data, varieties exhibiting stable agronomic (yield & insect/weed resistance) and sensory performance over two years and 4 locations (7 environments total) will be eligible for edamame release in 2020. A project to relate color with pod/bean size, moisture, and sugar/amino acid content will be conducted to determine optimal harvest timing for growers. The project will involve using a Konica Minolta 700d spectrophotometer to collect L*a*b values for color at 6 timepoints along the R5 to R7 growth stage transition for three varieties (one two varieties and one commercial check). Optimal harvest stage will be identified as the stage where pod size, moisture content, and sugar/amino acid content are maximized. The precise color at which optimal harvest stage is reached can permit the use of handheld spectrophotometers to indicate when to harvest and can also be used for the development of cheap, inexpensive color charts to be used in extension. Furthermore, the elucidation of optimal harvest timing, is needed to developing a more straight-forward harvest protocol collaborators on the project such that unbiased phenotypic data, especially for flavor and sensory analysis, can be obtained. Objective 4. Available agronomic and sensory data on edamame will be presented at the Virginia Annual Soybean Field Day in Warsaw, Virginia in September 2019. To enhance the reach of dissemination efforts, a virtual edamame field day is currently in the planning stages. The virtual field day would be streamed online through one of our online platforms (website, Facebook page, other mediums) and would feature four 15-minute presentations from collaborators in the project across our three locations, covering agronomic and flavor/sensory quality, processing, and economics/marketability (economics). The virtual field day can be greatly useful by allowing for expertise in different subject areas to be combined into an informative presentation on research progress for the project hitherto as well as future outlook for edamame, its production, and variety development going forward. This can broadly appeal to many stakeholders throughout the supply chain (growers, processers, and end users). A manuscript on consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for edamame with various external attributes (fresh, local, organic, and end product) is expected to be submitted for publication in 2019. The manuscript will also investigate explanatory variables for WTP such as gender, ethnicity, income, and market venue to provide growers and distributors with marketing insights for edamame. In addition, WTP data was also taken during sensory evaluation and will be used to assess economic worth of various flavor and appearance attributes for edamame such as sweetness and bean size.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Food science conducted blanching for more than 1000 edamame samples of different varieties harvested from three locations, conducted sensory evaluations of edamame from extension lines to understand the consumer perceptions on different edamame varieties, measured sugars (glucose, sucrose, and fructose) and alanine to quantify the sweetness of edamame samples, and provided recommendations, based on the sensory information, to breeders to assist with decision making for variety selection and field trials for 2019 season. The breeding groups in VA, MO, AR, and MS have coordinated closely to conduct breeding and phenotyping work on edamame breeding populations, lines, and Plant Introductions. We have communicated to develop entry lists, coordinate experimental design, and standardize data collection and sample shipment. Activities for the reporting period included crossing, yield testing, and pod/seed phenotyping. The entire group has been kept apprised of planting and field updates throughout the reporting period. For example, In Virginia, 24 new edamame cross combinations were made in 2019 with potential for development of an edamame variety. In Arkansas, there are 20 edamame breeding lines in advanced testing stages and 45 in preliminary yield trials. These breeding lines could be released products within the timeframe of the SCRI project. In Missouri, 504 large-seeded progeny rows have been planted and will be evaluated and selected in the fall 2019. The phenomics group has conducted 15 field campaigns/days to collect aerial imagery for edamame fields to evaluate canopy closure. We collected 1853 aerial images during the edamame growth season, which covers > 450,000 data points with one data point accounting for one plot at the given survey date. We are in the process of developing machine learning methods to identify soybean pods from 2D images. We also tested 3D reconstruction of edamame plants using stereo vision camera and structured light-based 3D scanner. At one location in Arkansas, Extension assessed 23 large-seeded soybean varieties for edamame yield. We also provided edamame pod samples of these varieties to the Food Science and Phenomics labs at Virginia Tech for chemical analysis and taste evaluations. At two locations in Virginia, we assessed 23 large-seeded soybean varieties for edamame yield, growth characteristics, pest incidence, and pubescence on pods. We also provided edamame pod samples of these varieties to the Food Science and Phenomics labs at Virginia Tech for chemical analysis and taste evaluations.

Publications

  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: 1) Lord, N., C. Neill, and B. Zhang. 2019. Production and Economic Considerations for Fresh Market Edamame in Southwest Virginia. Virginia Tech, Virginia Cooperative Extension Publ. No. AAEC-188P. https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/AAEC/AAEC-188P/AAEC-188P.html 2) Garber, B. and C. Neill. 2019. Edamame: Costs, Revenues and Profitability. Virginia Tech, Virginia Cooperative Extension Publ. No. AAEC-189P. https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/AAEC/AAEC-189P/AAEC-189P.html 3) Zhang, B., N. Lord, S. Li, M. Reiter, S. Rideout, J. Pollok, T. Kuhar, K. Sutton, S. Duncan, R. Carneiro, H. Huang, D. Yu, Y. Yin. 2019. Edamame Project. Virginia Coop. Ext. Publ. No. SPES-104NP. https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/SPES/SPES-104/SPES-104.html
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: 1) Zhang, Bo, Y. Yin, T. Kuhar, S. Duncan, S. Rideout, S. Li, P. Chen, L. Mozzoni, J. Ross, H. Huang, C. Neill, N. Lord, K. Sutton, D. Yu, R. Vieira Carneiro, E. Prenger, J. Pollock, M. Reiter, R. Chung, A. Gillen, S. Chang, S. Elli7, L. Chung, L. Florez-Palacios .2019. "Developing edamame varieties for better adaptation and improved consumer acceptance to increase domestic production." Poster presentation at the 2019 American Society of Horticultural Science meeting, Las Vegas, NV. 2) Lord, N., C. Neill, and B. Zhang. 2019. "Understanding Consumer Familiarity and Willingness-to-pay for Vegetable Soybean (Edamame) Marketed as Fresh, Local, USDA Certified Organic, or On-the-Stalk." Poster presentation at the 2019 American Society of Horticultural Science meeting, Las Vegas, NV. 3) Lord, Nick. 2019. Assessing Feasibility of Vegetable Soybean (Edamame) Production for Fresh Market in Southwest Virginia. Poster presentation at the 17th Biennial Cellular and Molecular Biology of Soybean Conference, Athens, GA. 4) Yu, D., R. Carneiro, S. Pinton, Y. Yin, S. Duncan, S. OKeefe, B. Zhang, H. Huang. 2019. Determination of Soluble Sugars and Free Alanine Contents of Different Edamame Varieties Harvested from Three Locations. 2019 Virginia Tech Department of Food Science Poster Presentation, Blacksburg, VA. 5) Sutton, K., T.P. Kuhar, S. Rideout, H. Doughty, and Jill Pollock. 2019. "Edamame Pest Research at Virginia Tech." Poster presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America, March 9-12, 2019, Blacksburg, VA. 6) Sutton, K., S. Rideout, and T. P. Kuhar. 2019. "Edamame pest research at Virginia Tech." Poster presentation at the Virginia Academy of Science 97th Annual Meeting, May 24-25, 2019, Norfolk, VA. 7) Sutton, Kemper. 2019. "Edamame Pest Research at Virginia Tech." Oral presentation for the Graduate Student Association Meeting, Suffolk, VA. 8) Pollok, J., B. Zhang, S. Rideout. Identification, prevalence and host specificity of edamame pod diseases in Virginia. Poster presentation at American Phytopathological Society conference, August 3-7, Cleveland, OH.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Extension Presentations: 1) Lord, Nick. 2019. "Understanding consumer demand and potential for edamame in Virginia." Oral presentation at Winter Vegetable Meeting, Warrenton, VA. 2) Lord, Nick. 2019. "The USDA edamame project at Virginia Tech." Oral presentation at the Eastern Shore Agriculture Conference & Trade Show, Melfa, VA. 3) Sutton, K. 2019. "Edamame Pest Research at Virginia Tech." Master Gardeners Meeting, Windsor, NC. 4) Sutton, Kemper. 2019. "Edamame Pest and Disease Research at Virginia Tech ESAREC." Extension talk for the REEL Student farm tour, Painter, VA. 5) Sutton, Kemper. 2019. "Edamame Pest and Disease Research at Virginia Tech ESAREC." Oral presentation for the Sweep Net and Disease ID Workshop, Painter, VA. 6) Sutton, Kemper, T.P. Kuhar, and S. Rideout. 2019. "Edamame Pest Management and Extension Research." Extension presentation for the Eastern Shore Agriculture Conference and Trade show, Melfa, VA. 7) Kuhar, T.P. 2019. Edamame Research at Virginia Tech. Oral Presentation for the 2nd Annual Virginia Tech Homefield Farm Showcase, August 22, 2019, Whitethorne, VA.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Additional Extension Activities: 1) One oral presentation to local edamame producers on production recommendations, 2) Four field visits to commercial edamame fields to assist with production questions, 3) 20+ phone calls to address edamame production questions
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Media and Press 1) WDBJ7 news article April 2019: "Grown Here at Home: Virginia Tech researchers playing key role in U.S. edamame production." 2) Virginia Tech news article October 2018: "Virginia Tech research team works across disciplines to boost U.S. edamame production." 3) Virginia Tech video December 2018: "Virginia Tech researchers develop homegrown edamame." 4) Virginia Tech Collegiate Times newspaper article, December 2018 article: "Researchers breed new edamame plants suitable for U.S. production." 5) Voice of America video in Russia August 2019: https://www.golos-ameriki.ru/a/detali/5017672.html.
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://edamameproject.weebly.com/