Agronomic and Seed Characteristics of Soybean Lines with Increased Oleate Content

Abstract

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] lines have been developed with the ol allele for elevated oleate from the mutant line M23 and alleles for reduced linolenate as a means of increasing stability of the oil. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of elevated oleate content on agronomic and seed traits. From each of three segregating populations, 27 low‐linolenate lines with a mean oleate content >500 g kg−1 and 27 low‐linolenate lines with a mean oleate content <280 g kg−1 were selected for evaluation in three Iowa environments in 2007. The mean seed yield of the mid‐oleate (MO) lines was significantly less by 12% than the lines with conventional oleate (CO) content and the highest yielding lines in each population were of the CO type. The mean protein content of the MO lines was significantly greater by 14 g kg−1 and their mean oil content significantly less by 7 g kg−1 than the CO lines. The mean differences between the MO and CO lines were <1 d for time of maturity, 3 cm for plant height, 0.3 for lodging score, and 8 mg seed−1 for seed weight. The primary challenge for developing commercially acceptable MO lines derived from M23 will be to overcome the difference in yield compared with CO lines.