Abstract
Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] seed oil is the primary global source of edible oil and a major renewable and sustainable feedstock for biodiesel production. Therefore, increasing the relative oil concentration in soybean is desirable; however, that goal is complex due to the quantitative nature of the oil concentration trait and possible effects on major agronomic traits such as seed yield or protein concentration. The objectives of the present study were to study the relationship between seed oil concentration and important agronomic and seed quality traits, including seed yield, 100-seed weight, protein concentration, plant height, and days to maturity, and to identify oil quantitative trait loci (QTL) that are co-localized with the traits evaluated. A population of 203 F4:6 recombinant inbred lines, derived from a cross between moderately high oil soybean genotypes OAC Wallace and OAC Glencoe, was developed and grown across multiple environments in Ontario, Canada, in 2009 and 2010. Among the 11 QTL associated with seed oil concentration in the population, which were detected using either single-factor ANOVA or multiple QTL mapping methods, the number of QTL that were co-localized with other important traits QTL were six for protein concentration, four for seed yield, two for 100-seed weight, one for days to maturity, and one for plant height. The oil-beneficial allele of the QTL tagged by marker Sat_020 was positively associated with seed protein concentration. The oil favorable alleles of markers Satt001 and GmDGAT2B were positively correlated with seed yield. In addition, significant two-way epistatic interactions, where one of the interacting markers was solely associated with seed oil concentration, were identified for the selected traits in this study. The number of significant epistatic interactions was seven for yield, four for days to maturity, two for 100-seed weight, one for protein concentration, and one for plant height. The identified molecular markers associated with oil-related QTL in this study, which also have positive effects on other important traits such as seed yield and protein concentration, could be used in the soybean marker breeding programs aimed at developing either higher seed yield and oil concentration or higher seed protein and oil concentration per hectare. Alternatively, selecting complementary parents with greater breeding values due to positive epistatic interactions could lead to the development of higher oil soybean cultivars.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ASA (2011) The American Soybean Association. [online] Available at: http://www.soygrowers.com/
Asins MJ (2002) Present and future quantitative trait locus analysis in plant breeding. Plant Breed 121:281–291
Bellaloui N, Smith JR, Ray JD, Gillen AM (2009) Effect of maturity on seed composition in the early soybean production system as measured on near-isogenic soybean lines. Crop Sci 49:608–620
Burton JW (1987) Quantitative genetics: results relevant to soybean breeding. In: Wilcox JR (ed) Soybeans: improvement, production, and uses, 2nd edn. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, Madison, pp 211–242
Burton JW, Brim CA (1981) Recurrent selection in soybeans: III. Selection for increased percent oil in seeds. Crop Sci 21:31–34
Chung J, Babka HL, Graef GL, Staswick PE, Lee DJ, Cregan PB, Shoemaker RC, Specht JE (2003) The seed protein, oil, and yield QTL on soybean linkage group I. Crop Sci 43:1053–1067
Clemente TE, Cahoon EB (2009) Soybean oil: genetic approaches for modification of functionality and total oil. Plant Physiol 151:1030–1040
Csanádi G, Vollmann J, Stift G, Lelley T (2001) Seed quality QTLs identified in a molecular map of early maturing soybean. Theor Appl Genet 103:912–919
Diers BW, Keim P, Fehr WR, Shoemaker RC (1992) RFLP analysis of soybean seed protein and oil content. Theor Appl Genet 83:608–612
Du W, Wang M, Fu S, Yu D (2009) Mapping QTLs for seed yield and drought susceptibility index in soybean (Glycine max L.) across different environments. J Genet Genom 36:721–731
Eskandari M, Cober ER, Rajcan I (2013) Genetic control of soybean seed oil: I. QTL and genes associated with seed oil concentration in RIL populations derived from crossing moderately high oil parents. Theor Appl Genet 126:483–495
Falconer DS, Mackay TFC (1996) Introduction to quantitative genetics. 4th edn. Longman, New York, pp 122–144
Fehr WR, Caviness CE, Burmood DT, Pennington JS (1971) Stage of development descriptions for soybeans, Glycine max (L.) Merrill. Crop Sci 11:929–931
Feng L, Burton JW, Carter TE Jr, Pantalone VR (2004) Recurrent half-sib selection with testcross evaluation for increased oil content in soybean. Crop Sci 44:63–69
Guzman PS, Diers BW, Neece DJ, Martin SKS, Leroy AR, Grau CR, Hughes TJ, Nelson RL (2007) QTL associated with yield in three backcross-derived populations of soybean. Crop Sci 47:111–122
Hallauer AR, Miranda JB (1988) Quantitative genetics in maize breeding. 2nd edn. Iowa University Press, Ames
Holland JB (1998) EPISTACY: a SAS program for detecting twolocus epistatic interactions using genetic marker information. J Heredity 89:374–375
Holland JB, Nyquist WE, Cervantes-Martinez CT (2003) Estimating and interpreting heritability for plant breeding: an update. Plant Breed Rev 22:9–111
Hyten DL, Pantalone VR, Sams CE, Saxton AM, Landau-Ellis D, Stefaniak TR, Schmidt ME (2004) Seed quality QTL in a prominent soybean population. Theor Appl Genet 109:552–561
Iqbal M, Navabi A, Salmon DF, Yang RC, Spaner D (2007) Simultaneous selection for early maturity, increased grain yield and elevated grain protein content in spring wheat. Plant Breed 126:244–250
Kabelka EA, Diers BW, Fehr WR, LeRoy AR, Baianu IC, You T, Neece DJ, Nelson RL (2004) Putative alleles for increased yield from soybean plant introductions. Crop Sci 44:784–791
Keim P, Schupp JM, Travis SE, Clayton K, Zhu T, Shi L, Ferreira A, Webb DW (1997) A high-density soybean genetic map based on AFLP markers. Crop Sci 37:537–543
Lark KG, Chase K, Adler F, Mansur LM, Orf JH (1995) Interactions between quantitative trait loci in soybean in which trait variation at one locus is conditional upon a speciWc allele at another. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 92:4656–4660
Lee SH, Bailey MA, Mian MAR, Carter TE, Shipe ER, Ashley DA, Parrott WA, Hussey RS, Boerma HR (1996) RFLP loci associated with soybean seed protein and oil content across populations and locations. Theor Appl Genet 93:649–657
Lee GJ, Wu X, Shannon JG, Sleper DA and Nguyen HT (2007) Soybean, P 1-3. In: Kole C (ed) Genome mapping and molecular breeding in plants. vol 2, Oilseeds, pp 1–3
Li HH, Ye GY, Wang JK (2007) A modified algorithm for the improvement of composite interval mapping. Genetics 175:361–374
Mansur LM, Orf JH, Lark KG (1993) Determining the linkage of qualitative trait loci to RFLP markers using extreme phenotypes of recombinant inbreds of soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.). Theor Appl Genet 86:914–918
Nyquist WE, Baker RJ (1991) Estimation of heritability and prediction of selection response in plant populations. Crit Rev Plant Sci 10(3):235–322
Orf JH, Chase K, Adler FR, Mansur LM, Lark KG (1999a) Genetics of soybean agronomic traits: II. Interactions between yield quantitative trait loci in soybean. Crop Sci 39:1652–1657
Orf JH, Chase K, Jarvik T, Mansur LM, Cregan PB, Adler FR, Lark KG (1999b) Genetics of soybean agronomic traits: I. comparison of three related recombinant inbred populations. Crop Sci 39:1642–1651
Palomeque L, Liu L, Li W, Hedges B, Cober E, Rajcan I (2009a) QTL in mega-environments: I. Universal and speciWc seed yield QTL detected in a population derived from a cross of high-yielding adapted × high-yielding exotic soybean lines. Theor Appl Genet 119:417–427
Palomeque L, Liu L, Li W, Hedges B, Cober E, Rajcan I (2009b) QTL in mega-environments: II. Agronomic trait QTL co-localized with seed yield QTL detected in a population derived from a cross of high-yielding adapted × high-yielding exotic soybean lines. Theor Appl Genet 119:429–436
Panthee DR, Pantalone VR, West DR, Saxton AM, Sams CE (2005) Quantitative trait loci for seed protein and oil concentration, and seed size in soybean. Crop Sci 45:2015–2022
Qi Z, Wu Q, Han X, Sun Y, Du X, Liu C, Jiang H, Hu G, Chen Q (2011) Soybean oil content QTL mapping and integrating with meta-analysis method for mining genes. Euphytica 179:499–514
Qui BX, Arelli PR, Sleper DA (1999) RFLP markers associated with soybean cyst nematode resistance and seed composition in a ‘Peking’ × ‘Essex’ population. Theor Appl Genet 98:356–364
Ramteke R, Kumar V, Murlidharan P, Agarwal DK (2010) Study on genetic variability and traits Pinterrelationship among released soybean varieties of India [Glycine max (L.) Merrill]. Electron J Plant Breed 1(6):1483–1487
Ray JD, Fritschi FB, Heatherly LG (2006) Large application of fertilizer N at planting affects seed protein and oil concentrations in the early soybean production system. Field Crops Res 99:67–74
Reinprecht Y, Poysa VW, Yu KF, Rajcan I, Ablett GR, Pauls KP (2006) Seed and agronomic QTL in low linolenic acid, lipoxygenase-free soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) germplasm. Genome 49:1510–1527
Schwender J, Ohlrogge JB, Shachar-Hill Y (2003) A flux model of glycolysis and oxidative pentosephosphate pathway in developing Brassica napus embryos. J Biol Chem 278:29442–29453
Scott RA, Kephart KD (1997) Selection for yield, protein, and oil in soybean crosses between adapted and introduced parents. Field Crops Res 49:177–185
Smith RR, Weber CR (1968) Mass selection by specific gravity for protein and oil in soybean populations. Crop Sci 8:373–377
Song QJ, Marek LF, Shoemaker RC, Lark KG, Concibido VC, Delannay X, Specht JE, Cregan PB (2004) A new integrated genetic linkage map of the soybean. Theor Appl Genet 109:122–128
Soybase (2011) Soybean breeder’s toolbox genetic map information. Available at: http://soybeanbreederstoolbox.org/ (Verified on 20 February, 2012) [Online]
Specht JE, Chase K, Macrander M, Graef BL, Chung J, Markwell JP, Germann M, Orf JH, Lark KG (2001) Soybean response to water: a QTL analysis of drought tolerance. Crop Sci 41:493–509
Tanksley SD, McCouch SR (1997) Seed banks and molecular maps: unlocking genetic potential from the wild. Science 277:1063–1066
Van Ooijen JW (2009) MapQTL® 6, Software for the mapping of quantitative trait loci in experimental populations of diploid species. Wageningen, Netherlands
Wang D, Graef GL, Procopiuk AM, Diers BW (2004) Identification of putative QTL that underlie yield in interspecific soybean backcross populations. Theor Appl Genet 108:458–467
Wilcox JR, Shibles RM (2001) Interrelationships among seed quality attributes in soybean. Crop Sci 41:11–14
Winter SMJ, Shelp BJ, Anderson TR, Welacky TW, Rajcan I (2007) QTL associated with horizontal resistance to soybean cyst nematode in Glycine soja PI464925B. Theor Appl Genet 114:461–472
Yuan J, Njiti VN, Meksem K, Iqbal MJ, Triwitayakorn K, Kassem MA, Davis GT, Schmidt ME, Lightfoot DA (2002) Quantitative trait loci in two soybean recombinant inbred line populations segregating for yield and disease resistance. Crop Sci 42(1):271–277
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Drs G. R. Ablett (in memoriam), K. P. Pauls, L. R. Erikson, and Y. Kakuda (University of Guelph) for their valuable suggestions on this research. The authors are also grateful to Wade Montminy, Chris Grainger, Ron Guillemette, Bryan Stirling, Dennis Fischer and the entire soybean crew at the University of Guelph for their excellent technical support. Generous funding to conduct this research was provided by the Alternative Renewable Fuels II Program of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) and by the Grain Farmers of Ontario.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by B. Diers.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Eskandari, M., Cober, E.R. & Rajcan, I. Genetic control of soybean seed oil: II. QTL and genes that increase oil concentration without decreasing protein or with increased seed yield. Theor Appl Genet 126, 1677–1687 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-013-2083-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-013-2083-z