Abstract:Soybean protein is an important source of edible protein. The components of subunits of soybean protein not only directly affect the function of soybean, but also affect the nutritional characteristics of soybean, thus affecting its application value. There were many reports about the soybean germplasms with 11S glycinin and 7S conglycinin and the relative content of their subunits, however, there is no research report on the components and contents of protein subunits of soybean germplasms in Shanxi ecotypes. In this study, 57 soybean germplasms of different eco-types from Shanxi Province were tested. pH gradients were set to analyze the total proteins of the same soybean germplasm (51×57) precipitated in different pH values by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, determining the best pH value (pH=4.6) precipitating storage proteins. Based on the analysis above, various main subunits of 11S glycinin and 7S conglycinin were separated and relative contents of 11S, 7S and their subunits were acquired by Quantity One 4.52. The results showed that among the components of 7S, the subunit β possessed the highest average relative content, which was 15.97%; among the components of 11S, the subunit BS possessed the highest average relative content, which was 44.76%. The relative contents of the same subunits of different eco-types soybean germplasms showed wide variation. The subunit β had the highest variation coefficient and its variant range was from 7.32% to 21.71%, its variation coefficient amounted to 17.46%. The subunit BS had the lowest variation coefficient and its variant range was from 36.65% to 51.86%, its variation coefficient was only 5.65%. The average value of the 11S/7S ratio of soybean ecotopes in Shanxi was 1.78, standard deviation was 0.33, the variant range was from 1.46 to 3.45 and the variation coefficient was 18.55%. The 11S/7S ratios were mostly distributed between 1.50 and 1.99, there were 43 germplasms in the range. There were 5 germplasms whose 11S/7S ratios were lower than 1.50 and there were 4 germplasms whose 11S/7S ratio were between 2.00 and 2.50. Subunits components of different soybean germplasms possessed variations on the relative contents and absence of different subunits, which indicated that there was abundant genetic diversity in soybean germplasms in Shanxi ecotypes. Correlation was found among various subunits, also between the subunits and 11S and 7S. 11S was extremely negatively correlated with 7S(r=-0.998* *). 11S, 7S and the 11S/7S ratio were not correlated with protein and fat. This result showed that there was a small feasibility to cultivate higher protein or higher fat soybean varieties by selecting higher relative contents of 11S and 7S, and higher 11S/7S ratios of soybean germplasms. It was revealed that the contents of subunits of soybean proteins varied depending varieties and their origins. We discovered four excellent soybean germplasms of natural mutatation in this study, they are respectively SN-Z420 (lacking lipoxidase), Luliang Local variety (extremely low content of subunitβ), Jinhan125×9886083-1(low content of subunit A3), and 6001×Jinpin55 (the highest value of the 11S/7S ratio), which would provide the foundation of research on component and variation of protein subunits of soybean germplasms, analysis and mechanism of genetic variation of protein subunits in the ecotopes of Shanxi and loess plateau, and breeding programmes for excellent soybean varieties and food-processing with important germplasms.