Fabaceae family(Glycine max)
Fabaceae family
Soybeans, an ancient crop in China cultivated since the second millennium B.C., have risen to world prominence as an agricultural commodity during the 20th Century. It was domesticated from the wild soybean G. soja. U.S. soybean production centers in the midwestern Corn Belt and the Deep South. Other important world producers are China, Argentina, and Brazil. The soybean crop is the world's leading source of vegetable oil and protein meal for poultry and livestock feed. It is also finding increasing uses in human food. Soybean is a legume, which means it fixes atmospheric nitrogen and contributes to plant-available soil nitrogen. Soybean is very sensitive to daylength, and varieties must be bred for specific maturity zones based on latitude. Breeders have estimated that 80-90% of the genes in US soybean cultivars were contributed by approximately 20 soybean introductions. This represents a relatively narrow, and potentially vulnerable, genepool. Soybean has a chromosome number of 2n=40.
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