Mapping and identification of QTLs for seed fatty acids in soybean ( Glycine max L.)

Soybean is one of the most important sources of vegetable oil. The oil content and fatty acid ratio have attracted significant attention due to their impacts on the shelf-life of soybean oil products and consumer health. In this study, a high-density genetic map derived from Guizao 1 and Brazil 13 was used to analyze the quantitative trait loci of palmitic acid (PA), stearic acid (SA), oleic acid (OA), linoleic acid (LA), linolenic acid (LNA), and oil content (OC). A total of 54 stable QTLs were detected in the genetic map linkage analysis, which shared six bin intervals. Among them, the bin interval on chromosome 13 (bin106-bin118 and bin123-bin125) was found to include stable QTLs in multiple environments that were linked to OA, LA, and LNA. Eight differentially expressed genes (DEGs) within these QTL intervals were determined as candidate genes according to the combination of parental resequencing, bioinformatics and RNA sequencing data. All these results are conducive to breeding soybean with the ideal fatty acid ratio for food, and provide the genetic basis for mining genes related to the fatty acid and oil content traits in soybean.