Maternal Effect on Fatty Acid Composition and Oil Content of Soybeans, Glycine max (L.) Merrill1

Abstract

Fatty acid composition and oil content of seeds were determined by gas‐liquid chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry, respectively, for parents and reciprocal crosses of soybeans. It was found that oil content and the fatty acids (oleic, linoleic, and linolenic) of the oil are determined primarily by the genotype of the maternal parent. The pollen parent had little influence on oleic and linoleic acids of seed oil, but in certain crosses the genotype of the male parent influenced the linolenic acid fraction. In these crosses linolenic acid was intermediate between the two parents. The results indicate that selection for oil content or for unsaturated fatty acids based on individual F2 seed analysis would be ineffective in soybeans, with the possible exception of linolenic acid.