Using recombinant DNA technology, the vector system containing minimal fragment of a bacterial hemoglobin gene (vgb) was constructed. When this vector was inserted into Escherichia coli, the growth of the host was significantly improved in both viable cell counts and absorbance measurement, compared to that of the wild type strain. In addition, by minimizing the size of bacterial hemoglobin in the vector, the ability of vgb in growth improvement was augmented, due to the reduction of metabolic burden from the maintenance and replication of the plasmid. By using this system, it is expected that the growth of microorganisms can be improved even in the hypoxic condition.

Soybean quality is determined based on protein content, lipid content and fatty acid composition, and several functional components including isoflavones, anthocyanins and functional activity. Because the level of each component changes during seed development, it is necessary to know the concentration of quality-related components in developing seeds. Little is known of the pattern of changes in quality-related components. Seeds from field-grown soybean was harvest from the R6 stage to the R8 stage in 2004. Seed characteristics and the level of nutritional components were examined. Seed moisture content was dropped rapidly after the R7 stage in the tested varieties. Seed growth rate was the highest from the beginning of the R6 stage to the mid-R6 stage. Chlorophyll content was decreased rapidly in pods and seeds. However, seed growth period from the R6~;to~;R8 was 35 days. The crude protein content was. increased dramatically between 63 DAF and 70 DAF and then increased slightly. The pattern of isoflavone accumulation was nearly similar to that of seed weight increase. From the late R6 stage to the R7 , the accumulation rate was higher as compared to other stages. The angiotensin inhibitory activity was increased according to seed development from 63 (R6 ) to 84 DAF (R8 ). The difference of inhibitory activity in heated soybean powder, however, was not great among stages. The inhibitory activity was affected by heating treatment. The most effective heating time was 10 min. Excessive heating longer than 30 min resulted in a lowered inhibitory activity of soybean on ACE