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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Soybean Genomics & Improvement Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #324570
Title: Identify and validate a quantitative trait locus underlying stearic acid on chromosome 14 in a soybean landrace using recombinant inbred lines and resident heterozygous lines

Author
item YAN, LONG - Hebei Academy Of Agriculture & Forestry
item DENG, YINGYING - Hebei Academy Of Agriculture & Forestry
item Song, Qijian
item CREGAN, PERRY - Retired ARS Employee
item CHEN, PENGYIN - University Of Arkansas
item LEI, YAKUN - Hebei Academy Of Agriculture & Forestry
item CHEN, QIANG - Hebei Academy Of Agriculture & Forestry
item DI, RUI - Hebei Academy Of Agriculture & Forestry
item LIU, BINGQIANG - Hebei Academy Of Agriculture & Forestry
item ZHANG, MENGCHEN - Hebei Academy Of Agriculture & Forestry

Submitted to: Journal of Crop Improvement
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/18/2015
Publication Date: 3/30/2016
Citation: Yan, L., Deng, Y., Song, Q., Cregan, P., Chen, P., Lei, Y., Chen, Q., Di, R., Liu, B., Zhang, M. 2016. Identify and validate a quantitative trait locus underlying stearic acid on chromosome 14 in a soybean landrace using recombinant inbred lines and resident heterozygous lines. Journal of Crop Improvement. 30(2):152-164.

Interpretive Summary: Soybean contributes about 60% of the oilseed production around the world. Soybean seeds consist of five major fatty acids that determine the quality of soybean oil. Saturated fatty acids, such as stearic acid, are good for oil storage stability, but can contribute to undesirable health risks such as coronary heart disease and breast, colon, and prostate cancer. Currently, it has been challenging to reduce stearic levels in soybean seeds by breeding. Through this study, we identified genomic regions on soybean chromosomes 6 and 14 that were associated with low stearic acid content. Two DNA markers, BARCSOYSSR_14_1033 and BARCSOYSSR_14_1079, on chromosome 14 were discovered that help map the genetic traits for low stearic acid. This mapping information can be used by breeders at universities, companies and private institutes who would like to develop new soybean varieties with low stearic acid and improved health benefits.

Technical Abstract: Stearic acid (ST) is one of the saturated fatty acids (FAs) in soybean oil and great efforts have been made to elevate ST content through plant breeding. Improving ST content will be helpful to reduce the health risk of coronary heart diseases and breast, colon and prostate cancer. In this study, recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from ‘Jidou 12’ × ‘Heidou’ was used to identify the QTL underlying ST content. As a result, two QTL, named as qSTE_6_1 and qSTE_14_1, were identified. The QTL, qSTE_14_1, was also validated using residual heterozygous lines (RHLs) derived from the RILs. Analysis of the RHLs showed that two SSR markers, BARCSOYSSR_14_1033 and BARCSOYSSR_14_1079, on chromosome 14 were tightly linked with the qSTE_14_1 and could explain 50.2% and 43.1% of ST content variance at two locations. The allele from ‘Heidou’ decreased the ST content from 3.28% to 2.92% at one location and from 3.55% to 3.01% at another. No significant effect of qSTE_14_1 on other FA contents was detected at both locations. Identification of QTL related to low ST content in soybean landrace is useful to meet the diverse demands of soybean consumers and will help geneticists to understand the mechanics of genes controlling the low ST.