William Singer: Using brain and brawn for better beans

The following story was written in December 2021 by Elisabeth Robb in ENGL 4824: Science Writing as part of a collaboration between the English department and the Center for Communicating Science.

Can one bean really change the way humans get all their essential nutrients? The answer, according to William Singer, is a resounding yes. 

    Singer, a post-doctoral researcher in Virginia Tech’s School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, works with soybeans, which are primarily used to feed livestock but also make up meat-substitute burgers and, when picked green, are sold as edamame. As the U.S. population increased and land available for farming decreased, Singer says, we began to grow higher-yield crops. But this increased production did not improve the quality of the soybeans being grown. 

    And that’s a problem. As Singer puts it, “It’s not enough for people and livestock to have enough food—they need to have enough quality food.” Seeing the challenges the country faces with soybeans, he is actively working to change the plant for the better. Balancing yield with quality is his goal.

    What Singer and his team have been working on is basically making the soybean a super bean. All animals—including humans—need to obtain nine essential amino acids from food. These building blocks of protein are called “essential” because animals cannot make them themselves. Usually, we human animals get them from a varied diet, but often livestock don’t have as varied of a diet and can greatly suffer because of it, he says.

    Soybeans, thankfully, have all the essential amino acids and are a good protein source for livestock. However, one of the nine amino acids—methionine—is greatly deficient in high-yield soybean varieties, Singer says. Livestock feed, therefore, has to be improved by adding synthetically produced methionine, which increases cost and has a negative impact on the environment. Production of synthetic methionine produces greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change.

    Singer has been working on developing a complete soybean, one that has sufficient quantities of all 9 essential amino acids and would not require addition of synthetic methionine. Accepting a slightly lower yield in exchange for a bean that provides all the essential amino acids would benefit farmers, consumers, and the environment, he says.

    Singer and his collaborators also work to produce new varieties of soybeans that will be able to “tough it out” as our climate changes. 

    “We're having to develop varieties that are more drought resistant for certain areas,” he says, “and we're having to develop varieties that are more resistant to heavy flooding that may occur out of nowhere.”

    Singer finds his work satisfying because it is directly applicable to real-world problems. And this is true, he says, “whether we help consumers directly, or whether we're helping farmers, which is what we tend to do most of the time because we're directly improving the seed that they're going to grow.”

    As the recipient of the 2020-2021 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Graduate Student Mentor Award at Virginia Tech, Singer also is working as a mentor to other students who are interested in his field of study, plant breeding and genetics. During his time at Virginia Tech, he discovered a love of teaching and decided to lean into it. For him, teaching others how to do research and work in the field is a mutually beneficial process. He doesn’t see it as something that drains him of energy; rather, he sees it as something that makes the team overall more efficient and deepens the student’s understanding and passion for the field. 

    Along with his love of teaching, Singer also is interested in improving communication between scientists and government. He sees a disparity between what scientists in this field are discovering and what’s actually being implemented. He dreams of taking a position within the U.S. government where he could advise policy makers and help bridge the gap between scientists and legislators. He’s not sure if such a job exists, but he’s certain that it’s a necessary position that needs to be filled—if not by him, hopefully by someone else and soon.

    I got a firsthand picture as to how invested Singer is in his work because we spoke by Zoom in the middle of a harvest day when he was working with his fellow graduate students and some undergraduates. On his lunch break when we spoke, Singer was eager to tell me about the manual labor he had been doing that morning, and I could see parts of the soybean field behind him. When he explained that the many types of soybean breeding plots were each picked by hand, I knew that Singer was not only interested in researching the soybean plant, but also willing to put some elbow grease into the work. With a smile on his face, he told me about his plans to increase productivity within the field of soybean harvesting and how beneficial even minor changes like that can have to the overall health of the food supply. He had passion and excitement in his voice as he taught me about soybean improvement and production, something that I would otherwise have regarded as meaningless. 

    Singer’s work with the soybean has not only led to new discoveries about completing the soybean’s amino acid complement, but it has also fed his personal love for the environment and plant breeding. Look out for meat-substitute burgers in a grocery aisle near you that contain soybean protein and remember how work from researchers like Singer can slowly change the world.