• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.171-184
• /
• 2006

According to ISAAA report, the global area of genetically modified (GM) crops increased more than 50 fold during the ten-year period from 1996 to 2005 with a sustained double-digit growth rate of 10%. This biotechnology adoption is one of the highest rates of technology adoption in agriculture history and this phenomenon indicates that the industrial value of the GM crops is highly perspective. In addition, the year 2010, 60% of cereal seeds in the global market would be GM or biotechnology related seeds so that the GM crop regards as the second green revolution that could provide a huge impact to food and agriculture. Nevertheless, there has not been any GM variety ever successfully commercialized in Korea and even none of the GM crops has ever been approved for safety testing by risk assessment. This seems that Korean agriculture industry might be indeed lost in the war of future seed market. However, lots of evidence show that Korean scientists have established advanced technologies and protocols to develop GM crops for last 20 years. Actually there have been many cases of successful transformation of crops that were previously known very difficult in transforming. Therefore, Korean agbiotechnology arena firmly holds an infrastructure for developing GM crops with a superior technology. Then what were the problems? Why has even a single GM crop not been commercialized in Korea? The tardiness shown by business in adopting the GM crop is caused by many factors: academical weakness, poor research funding, short knowledge of risk assessment, public concern, no successful experience, lack of professional leaders on GM variety development, lack of systems toward industrialization and inappropriate target transgenes from the beginning. In order to catch up in the race for the new green industry, each one of us in private sectors alongside academia and national research institutes needs to focus altogether on what can be done best in terms of choosing crops, investing fund and establishing a road map for commercialization of GM crops.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.27 no.11
• /
• pp.1299-1307
• /
• 2017

The quality characteristics of three non-genetically modified (GM) LRS soybean cultivars free of LOX 1, 2 and 3, such as Jinyang, Hayoung and Daebok, were compared to the characteristics of Taekwang, a soybean with LOX 1, 2 and 3 and general contents of raffinose and stachyose. Taekwang was used as a control soybean. The weights of 100 for Taekwang and Hayoung soybeans were significantly higher than those of the other samples. The crude-protein contents of the Jinyang and Hayoung soybeans were significantly higher than the crude-protein content of the Taekwang soybeans. Similar tofu yields were observed in the Taekwang, Hayoung and Daebok soybeans. The highest tofu yield was observed in the Hayoung soybeans. The isoflavone contents of the soybeans and tofu were 1.4-1.6 times and 1.8-3.4 times higher than the contents of the control soybeans, respectively. The total phenol contents of the Hayoung and Daebok soybeans were significantly higher than the contents of the control soybeans. Additionally, the total phenol and flavonoid contents were significantly higher in the tofu made from the LRS cultivars than in the tofu made from the control cultivar. The antioxidant activities of the Taekwang soybeans were higher than the antioxidant activities of the LRS-cultivar soybeans. However, the antioxidant activities of tofu made from the LRS cultivars were significantly higher than the antioxidant activities of tofu made from the control cultivar. The results suggested that the soybeans of the LRS cultivars were suitable for tofu products. The Hayoung cultivar may be the most suitable due to its higher crude protein and isoflavone contents and its significant antioxidant activity.