Modifier QTL for fatty acid composition in soybean oil

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is the principal oilseed crop in the world. Soybean oil has various industrial and food applications. The quality of soybean oil is determined by its fatty acid composition. Palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic and linolenic are the predominant fatty acids in soybean oil. The objective of this study was to determine the associations of simple sequence repeat (SSR) molecular markers with minor differences in fatty acids in soybean oil thereby detecting modifier quantitative trait loci (QTL) which could further improve soybean oil quality. To achieve this objective, 101 F-6-derived recombinant inbred lines (RIL) from a population whose parents did not contain major mutant fatty acid alleles were developed from a cross of N87-984-16 x TN93-99. Fatty acids were determined by gas chromatography. Heritability estimates on an entry mean basis for fatty acids ranged from 65.8 to 77.3% for palmitic and linoleic acids, respectively. Molecular marker Satt537 located on molecular linkage group (MLG) D1b was associated with palmitic acid and Satt168 and Satt249 located on MLG B2 and J, respectively were associated with stearic acid. Molecular markers Satt185 or Satt268 (which are within 0.6 cM of each other) located on MLG E were consistently associated with oleic and linoleic acid, and Satt263 and Satt235 located on MLG E and G, respectively were associated with linolenic acid. The lack of markers associated with multiple fatty acids suggests the possibility of independently changing fatty acid levels to achieve a desirable composition, except for regions common to all saturated fatty acids. Phenotypic variation explained by the fatty acids modifier QTL ranged from 10 to 22.5%. These modifier QTL may be useful in making minor improvements to further enhance the quality of soybean oil.