Abstract
Soybean is the most widely used source of edible oil for human consumption. It is consumed predominantly in the form of margarine, shortening, and salad and frying oils. Altered unsaturated fatty acid content (elevated oleic acid and reduced linolenic acid) increases oxidative stability which have high usefulness in food for health benefits as well as in industry. Natural genetic variability for oleic and linolenic acid content in commercial soybean is limited. The most effective method for modifying fatty acid composition in soybean oil is mutagenesis. With the help of X-rays or chemical mutagens, it has become possible to develop different mutants with different fatty acid composition. Mutants with significantly reduced and elevated palmitic acid, elevated stearic acid, elevated oleic acid, and reduced linolenic acid content were isolated and found to be controlled by major genes. In this paper, gene discovery with altered fatty acid composition and development of novel soybean lines by combining multiple mutant alleles, and also recent progress of oleic acid with elevated content (50.0%) and linolenic acid with reduced content (3%) in soybean oil, are discussed.
