Profiling of seed fatty acid composition in 1025 Chinese soybean accessions from diverse ecoregions
Ahmed M. Abdelghany,
Shengrui Zhang,
Muhammad Azam,
Abdulwahab S. Shaibu,
Yue Feng,
Yanfei Li,
Yu Tian,
Huilong Hong,
Bin Li,
Junming Sun
Affiliations
Ahmed M. Abdelghany
The National Engineering Laboratory for Crop Molecular Breeding, MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China; Crop Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22516, Egypt
Shengrui Zhang
The National Engineering Laboratory for Crop Molecular Breeding, MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Muhammad Azam
The National Engineering Laboratory for Crop Molecular Breeding, MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Abdulwahab S. Shaibu
The National Engineering Laboratory for Crop Molecular Breeding, MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Yue Feng
The National Engineering Laboratory for Crop Molecular Breeding, MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Yanfei Li
The National Engineering Laboratory for Crop Molecular Breeding, MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Yu Tian
The National Engineering Laboratory for Crop Molecular Breeding, MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Huilong Hong
The National Engineering Laboratory for Crop Molecular Breeding, MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Bin Li
The National Engineering Laboratory for Crop Molecular Breeding, MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China; Corresponding authors.
Junming Sun
The National Engineering Laboratory for Crop Molecular Breeding, MARA Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology (Beijing), Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China; Corresponding authors.
The stability of soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) oil is determined mainly by its fatty acid (FA) composition. We evaluated the FA composition of 1025 Chinese soybean accessions collected from diverse ecoregions and grown in multiple locations and years. We observed highly significant differences (P < 0.001) between accessions in palmitic acid (PA), stearic acid (SA), oleic acid (OA), linoleic acid (LA), and linolenic acid (LNA) contents. Growth year affected (P < 0.001) the abundance of all FAs except PA. The mean PA, SA, OA, LA, and LNA contents were 12.2%, 3.8%, 21.5%, 54.2%, and 8.3%, respectively. The geographical origin of the accession influenced seed FA composition, indicating that accessions originating in each ecoregion tend to have distinct FA composition. We observed significant positive correlations among the three locations and between the two years, suggesting the high heritability and stability of individual accessions across contrasting environments. We also observed a relatively high negative correlation between the contents of OA and both LA and LNA (r = −0.90 and −0.59, respectively, each significant at P < 0.001), providing a potential entry point for developing strains producing oil with higher OA and lower LA and LNA levels. These would be appropriate for specialized use in the food industry. Our results will be useful in breeding soybean with improved quality to meet human nutritional and industrial needs.
