2012 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416): 1. Increase oil content above 22% while maintaining protein content at 41.5% and maintaining or increasing yield. 2. Increase stearic acid content, combining it with high oleic acid and high yield. 3. Decrease palmitic acid (less total saturated fatty acids), combining it with high oleic acid, low linolenic acid and high yield. 4. Continue to explore new and beneficial genetic resources (plant introductions, genes, molecular markers, and gene combinations) of oil traits that do not decrease yield and are environmentally stable. 1b.Approach (from AD-416): Soybean breeders in GA, NC, OH, TN, MO, AR, MI, SD and MN will work together to development productive soybean germplasms and varieties with improved oil quality, focusing on high oleic (HO) plus low palmitic acid, HO plus low palmiticis acid and low linolenic acid, HO plus high stearic acid, and HO plus increased bio-available tocopherol content. The genes controlling the traits will be merged using the latest molecular marker technology, and germplasm will be produced and tested in multiple field environments to confirm the stability of these improved fatty acid profiles. Some of the researchers will work on identifying new genes that affect oil composition to offer new alternatives for breeders and to avoid the potential problems associated with fixation of specific regions of the soybean genome. 3.Progress Report: This project is related to Objective 2 of the in-house project: To discover novel genes/alleles in soybean for seed composition, determine their inheritance, determine genomic location, transfer to adapted germplasm, and release. This new research project is a continuation of the project 6645-21220-012-26R and has been active only since April 1, 2012. Yield trials of advanced lines with modified fatty acid composition and/or high oil content have been planted. Additional crosses have been made to incorporate the low linolenic and high oleic traits into advanced breeding lines. Two populations developed to identify high novel high stearic loci were planted at two locations in North Carolina.