Agronomic and seed characteristics of soybean with reduced raffinose and stachyose

Monogastric animals cannot readily digest the raffinose and stachyose in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], which reduces the amount of metabolizable energy that can be obtained from soybean meal. Soybean cultivars homozygous for the recessive. allele stc1a from PI200508 have a reduced content of raffinose and stachyose and an increased content or sucrose. The objective of our study was to evaluate the influence of the stc1a allele on agronomic and seed traits. Two populations were developed by crossing two high-yielding cultivars to a donor with the stc1a stc1a genotype. Lines from each population with the stc1a stc1a genotype (stc1a lines) and Stc1a Stc1a genotype (Stc1a lines) were grown in replicated tests at three Iowa locations during 2002. There were no significant differences in the mean performance of stc1a and Stc1a lines in one or both of the populations for field emergence, seed yield, maturity, lodging, height, protein, oil, palmitate, stearate, oleate, linoleate, or linolenate. It should be possible to develop stc1a stc1a cultivars with reduced raffinose and stachyose that perform as well as conventional Stc1a Stc1a cultivars for all the agronomic and seed traits evaluated.