Fayetteville State University students train on lab equipment on campus. The image represents the hands-on science that powers FSU’s recent soybean DNA research. Photo from Fayetteville State University
Breeders may soon have a better approach to grow soybeans with more of a health-promoting peptide. In a new peer-reviewed study supported by the National Science Foundation, Fayetteville State University students and collaborators mapped sections of the soybean genome linked to higher levels of lunasin, a natural soy peptide studied in lab and animal models for cancer-preventive, antioxidant, and cholesterol-lowering effects.
Under the guidance of Jiazheng “John” Yuan, associate professor and assistant chair in FSU’s Department of Biological and Forensic Sciences, students co-authored the paper with Elvira de Mejía, a food scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Rouf Mian, a Raleigh research scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service…