Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Raleigh, North Carolina » Soybean and Nitrogen Fixation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #219867
Title: Heritability of Oleic Acid Seed Content in Soybean Oil and its Genetic Correlation with Fatty Acid and Agronomic Traits

Author
item BACHLAVA, ELENI - NC STATE UNIV
item Burton, Joseph
item BROWNIE, CAVELL - NC STATE UNIV
item WANG, SANBAO - NC STATE UNIV
item AUCLAIR, JEROME - NC STATE UNIV
item CARDINAL, ANDREA - NC STATE UNIV

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/11/2008
Publication Date: 9/25/2008
Citation: Bachlava, E., Burton, J.W., Brownie, C., Wang, S., Auclair, J., Cardinal, A. 2008. Heritability of Oleic Acid Seed Content in Soybean Oil and its Genetic Correlation with Fatty Acid and Agronomic Traits. Crop Sci. Vol. 48:1764-1772.

Interpretive Summary: If the oleic acid content of soybean oil is increased, the oil will be more stable in cooking applications. Oleic acid can be increased by soybean breeding. Three soybean breeding populations were developed for oleic acid improvement. Oleic acid was measured in early generation lines. The oleic acid content of these lines was shown to be reasonably predictive of the oleic acid content of their progeny in later generation. In addition, linoleic and linolenic acid decreased in the oil when oleic acid increased. In addition, decreases in the palmitic saturated fatty acid accompanied oleic acid increase. These results showed that early generation selection for increased oleic acid can be effective and decrease the time required for one cycle of breeding.

Technical Abstract: Oleic acid seed content is an important determinant of the nutritional value and the oxidative stability of soybean oil. Breeding for higher oleate content mandates the estimation of the heritability and the genetic correlations between oleate and fatty acid traits and between oleate and agronomic traits in order to practice selection effectively. The objective of this study was to determine and compare the aforementioned estimates in three soybean populations segregating for major and minor oleate genes, which were grown in replicated multi-environment trials. The results of this study indicated that early generation selection can be effective when practiced on replicated lines grown at a single environment. Significant negative genotypic and phenotypic correlations were observed between oleate and linoleate, oleate and linolenate, as well as oleate and palmitate in all three populations. Moreover, significant positive correlations were detected between palmitate and stearate in one of the populations under study, which is segregating for oleate genes as well as for the fapnc and fap1 reduced palmitate alleles. The latter population also revealed the significant negative correlation of yield with oleate content, and the positive correlations of yield with linoleate, linolenate and palmitate contents.