Oil, protein and fatty acid profiles of Brazilian soybean cultivars in multi-environmental trials

Abstract

Soybean is an important oil and protein source for human and animal food, as well as being used in the production of biofuel. Brazilian soybean is known for its quality, especially with regard to its high protein content. This work aimed to present a screening of Brazilian soybean cropped at different locations, to assess the composition of seed with regard to the protein, oil and fatty acid contents. We screened 46 cultivars, which represent more than 50% of the soybean cultivars produced in the South-Center region of Brazil in recent years, analyzed under six environments. In order to conduct the analysis, a grain sample was used to determine seed protein, oil and fatty acid contents, which was accomplished using near infrared spectroscopy (NIR). All the traits presented a genotype x environment interaction (GEI) (p<0.01). A mean oil content of 20.35% was identified for all the evaluated cultivars. This was superior to that obtained in other countries. The mean protein content was 40.20%, which was expected for the Brazilian soybean. This higher oil content is doubly favorable in Brazilian soybean: firstly, for its use as cooking oil and biofuel; secondly, for the production of high protein soybean meal, once all the oil is removed. The cultivars which presented the highest oil contents were also stable across the evaluated environments. On the other hand, the genotypes with the highest protein content presented low stability across the environments. Regarding the fatty acid composition, Brazilian soybean stands out for its low linoleic acid content, which gives a high oxidative stability to the resulting oil and biofuel. Trait associations were dependent on the location, thus breeders can select plants for specific traits at different locations. Brazilian cultivars present interesting characteristics for use in human and animal food products, and for biofuel production.

Stability analysis of pure lines and a multiline of soybean in different locations

“…The genotypes that had higher values for protein content, showed statistically lower oil content. These results support the idea that oil and protein contents have a negative association (Gesteira et al 2018, Jiang et al 2018, Matei et al 2018. The oil and protein content is presented in Table 5.…”

Agronomic performance and stability of seed, protein and oil yields of seven soybean cultivars determined in field experiments in Slovenia

“…Numerous authors use different yieldstability statistics to evaluate performance of tested genotypes (YAN and RAJCAN, 2003), e.g. GGE biplot (ZHANG et al, 2005;MATEI et al, 2018), Wricke's ecovalence (SILVA et al, 2016), regression (b), determination (R 2 ) and deviation of the linear regression (σ 2 ) coefficients (LIMA et al, 2000), regression coefficient (b) (YAN et al, 2010), coefficients of variation (CV) (POPOVIĆ et al, 2012), amongst others. Interestingly, however, all stability indices are relative to each study and determine the best genotype among tested cultivars.…”

Selection indexes based on linear‐bilinear models applied to soybean breeding

“…Higher values of GY, OIL, PRT, PH, and TGW are desirable for soybean crop (Matei et al., ; Matei et al., ). Medium‐cycle cultivars have been prioritized because they present higher productive potential and are preferred by farmers.…”

“…Leite et al (2018) indicated that exploratory multivariate techniques can be applied to select genotypes by analyzing the agronomic traits altogether, increasing the chance of success of a breeding program. Higher values of GY, OIL, PRT, PH, and TGW are desirable for soybean crop (Matei et al, 2017;Matei et al, 2018). Medium-cycle cultivars have been prioritized because they present higher productive potential and are preferred by farmers.…”