Molecular breeding for improvement of fatty acids in soybean

Soybean is a major global oil crop. Development of soybean cultivars with enhanced fatty acids is an important breeding goal that will produce healthier oil for human consumption. In this study, we developed near-isolines for high oleic and low linolenic traits with various combinations of FAD2-1A and FAD2-1B, or different FAD3A alleles. The lines with mutant FAD2-1A and FAD2-1B alleles produced an average of 806 g kg-1 oleic acid and with mutant FAD3A alleles reduced the linolenic acid to 37 g kg-1. Replicated yield tests indicated that these traits didnt cause yield reduction. Modified fatty acid composition did not have a major impact on seed germination. The FATB1a gene is responsible for reduced palmitic acid in soybean line N87-2122-4. We identified the FATB1a gene deletion region in the soybean genome and successfully developed a TaqMan marker assay to detect the deletion. The marker can be used effectively in marker-assisted breeding of the reduced palmitic acid trait in soybean.