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Development of Rigorous Fatty Acid Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Quantitation Methods in Support of Soybean Oil Improvement

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society

Abstract

The mature seeds of soybean (Glycine max L. Merr) are a valuable source of high-quality edible lipids and protein. Despite dramatic breeding gains over the past 80 years, soybean oil continues to be oxidatively unstable, due to a high proportion of polyunsaturated triacylglycerols. Until recently, the majority of soybean oil underwent partial chemical hydrogenation. Mounting health concerns over trans fats, however, has increased breeding efforts to introgress mutant and biotechnological genetic alterations of soybean oil composition into high-yielding lines. As a result, there is an ongoing need to characterize fatty acid composition in a rapid, inexpensive and accurate manner. Gas chromatography is the most commonly used method, but near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) can be calibrated to non-destructively phenotype various seed compositions accurately and at a high throughput. Here we detail development of NIRS calibrations using intact seeds for every major soybean fatty acid breeding goal over an unprecedented range of oil composition. The NIRS calibrations were shown to be equivalent to destructive chemical analysis, and incorporation into a soybean phenotyping operation has the potential to dramatically reduce cost and accelerate phenotypic analysis.

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Abbreviations

NIRS:

Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy

GC:

Gas chromatography

MS:

Multiple scatter correction

SEP:

Standard error of performance

RMSEP:

Root mean square error of prediction

RPD:

Relative prediction deviation

FAs:

Fatty acid species

PLS:

Partial least squares

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the excellent technical assistance of two USDA-ARS technicians Alexandria Berghaus and Jeremy Mullis who were primarily responsible for all field work and gas chromatography in support of this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    Avinash Karn & Crystal Heim

  2. U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    Sherry Flint-Garcia, Kristin Bilyeu & Jason Gillman

Authors
  1. Avinash Karn
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  2. Crystal Heim
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  3. Sherry Flint-Garcia
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  4. Kristin Bilyeu
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  5. Jason Gillman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jason Gillman.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no pertinent conflict of interest related to this study, which was partially supported by a grant from United Soybean Board (Project No. 1420-632-6605), and by USDA-Agricultural Research Service internal funding. Mention of any trademarks, vendors, or proprietary products does not constitute a guarantee or warranty of the product by the USDA and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products or vendors that may also be suitable. The USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Midwest Area, is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer and all agency services are available without discrimination.

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Karn, A., Heim, C., Flint-Garcia, S. et al. Development of Rigorous Fatty Acid Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Quantitation Methods in Support of Soybean Oil Improvement. J Am Oil Chem Soc 94, 69–76 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-016-2916-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-016-2916-4

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