Development of High w-3 Soybean Germplasm

The focus of this program is to determine the technical feasibility and market size for developing soybean germplasm with a fatty acid profile that is beneficial to human health, including fatty acids such as arachidonic (AA), eicosapentaenoic (EPA), stearidonic (SDA) and docosahexanoic (DHA). The overall goal of this research project is to developing a high £s-3 soybean line using a new rapid precision genetic non-GMO approach to soybean improvement/breeding. This high £\-linolenic acid (ALA) germplasm will be more valuable itself and will facilitate developing soybeans with high levels of SDA, EPA and DHA which are derived from ALA. The specific objectives/tasks are: 1.) Cloning of additional ƒç3 desaturase genes from the highest ƒç3 soybean relatives 2.) Construction of seed-specific expression cassettes with high ƒç3 desaturases; 3.) Engineering of soybean embryos with seed-specific expression of ƒç3 desaturase and selection of lines with high £s3/linolenic acid levels; 4.) Soybean embryos with highest ƒç3 levels will be grown out into whole plants and progeny seed evaluated. The high ƒç3 trait can readily be incorporated into the highest yielding elite cultivars for an improved oil opportunity for utilization of soybean oil and thereby increase market demand.