Agronomic and Seed Traits of Soybean Lines with High Oleate Concentration

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] lines with the transgenic event DP-305423-1 produce a high-oleate oil and those with the fan1(C1640) and fan3(RG10) alleles produce a low-linolenate oil. The objective of this study was to evaluate the agronomic and seed traits of high-oleate and low-linolenate (HOLL) lines, high-oleate and normal-linolenate (HONL) lines, and normal-oleate and normal-linolenate (NONL) lines selected from four single-cross populations segregating for the three genes. A minimum of 14 F-3:5 lines of each class in the four populations were evaluated in five environments during 2009. The mean fatty ester concentrations averaged across populations were 786 g kg(-1) oleate and 24 g kg(-1) linolenate for the HOLL lines, 784 g kg(-1) oleate and 56 g kg(-1) linolenate for the HONL lines, and 226 g kg(-1) oleate and 75 g kg(-1) linolenate for the NONL lines. The mean yield of the NONL lines was significantly greater than the HOLL lines by 4.5% and the HONL lines by 3.0%. Of the 10 highest yielding lines in each population, 60% were NONL, 25% HOLL, and 15% HONL, which indicated that it would be possible to select cultivars of both classes that yield as well as NONL cultivars. The overlap among the three classes in the distributions of lines for protein, oil, seed weight, maturity, height, and lodging indicated that it would be possible to develop HOLL and HONL cultivars comparable to NONL cultivars for those traits.