Heritability of oleic acid content in soybean seed oil and its genetic correlation with fatty acid and agronomic traits

Oleate content is important for the nutritional value and oxidative stability of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] seed oil. Response to selection for higher oleate content depends on its heritability in breeding populations, and correlated responses of other fatty acid and agronomic traits to selection for oleate content depend on their genetic correlations with oleate. The objective of this study was to estimate the heritability of oleate content and to determine the correlation of oleate with other fatty acid and agronomic traits in three soybean populations segregating for major and minor oleate genes grown in multiple environments. One of the populations consisted of 721 lines, providing excellent precision for estimation of the genetic parameters. The results of this study indicated that heritability for oleate content was sufficiently high that early generation selection can be effective when practiced on unreplicated lines grown at a single environment. Significant negative correlations were observed between oleate and linoleate, oleate and linolenate, as well as oleate and palmitate in all three populations. Significant positive correlations were detected between palmitate and stearate in one population segregating for oleate genes and fap(nc) and fap1 alleles, which reduce palmitate content. In the same population we also observed a significant negative correlation between yield and oleate content, and positive correlations between yield and linoleate, and linolenate and palmitate contents.