Assessment of bacterial communities of black soybean grown in fields.

Since the domestication of soybean () about 4,500 years ago, thousands of local cultivars have been developed around the world. In Japan, black soybeans grown in the mountainous region of central Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures, called the Tamba region, are well known for large seeds and palatability. The yields of black soybean in the Tamba region of Kyoto have decreased during the past few decades, and the involvement of rhizosphere microbes in the yield decline has been suggested.