Genetic Control of Cadmium Concentration in Soybean seeds

Cadmium (Cd) is a chemical element present in the soil. At high concentrations Cd can cause physiological and morphological damages to plants and it is highly toxic to human beings. Minimizing the intake of Cd and other heavy metals from food consumption is an important health issue. Efforts have been made to identify genetic elements that are involved in Cd detoxification in plants. Heavy metal transporter 3
(HMA3) plays a role in sequestration of Cd into vacuoles in soybean (Glycine max). Inheritance studies revealed that low Cd accumulation in soybean seed is controlled by a major gene (Cda1) with the allele for low accumulation being dominant. Major QTL for seed Cd accumulation, Cda1 and cd1, have been identified independently for low Cd accumulation and both mapped to the same location as on LG-K (Chromosome 9) with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A single nucleotide substitution causing a loss of function of the ATPase was found. The SSR markers linked to the Cda1 and Cd1gene(s)/or QTLs and the SNP marker in the P1B-ATPase metal ion transporter gene in soybean can be utilized in marker assisted selection (MAS) for developing food grade soybean varieties.