ARS | Publication request: Driving Fast in Reverse: Accelerating the Development of Soybean Varieties With Enhanced Oil Traits

Submitted to: American Oil Chemists' Society Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: April 20, 2009
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Plant breeding has been practiced first likely unintentionally and then driven by ever more sophisticated rationale. Many advances in crops have been achieved through plant breeding, especially forward genetic selection to identify superior traits in plants that exhibited phenotypic variation. More complex has been the identification of the genes responsible for the desired traits, although some success has been achieved. The use of model plant systems as a resource to build a knowledge base about basic physiological, biochemical, and molecular processes has provided the modern plant breeder with a new set of tools to use to create superior crops. Reverse genetics is a technique in which variants in candidate genes are sought to identify individual plants with predictably altered phenotypes. A positive and important outcome of this technique is that along with the desired phenotype, a perfect molecular marker can be easily generated and used to rapidly introgress the trait into elite crop varieties. The objective of this research was to develop a reverse genetics population for soybean and screen it for altered fatty acid profile traits using candidate genes for an increased oleic acid phenotype. The results indicate the power of the reverse genetics technique to complement existing plant breeding strategies.