Identification of QTL underlying vitamin E contents in soybean seed among multiple environments

Vitamin E (VE) in soybean seed has value for foods, medicines, cosmetics, and animal husbandry. Selection for higher VE contents in seeds along with agronomic traits was an important goal for many soybean breeders. In order to map the loci controlling the VE content, F(5)-derived F(6) recombinant inbred lines (RILs) were advanced through single-seed-descent (SSD) to generate a population including 144 RILs. The population was derived from a cross between ‘OAC Bayfield’, a soybean cultivar with high VE content, and ‘Hefeng 25’, a soybean cultivar with low VE content. A total of 107 polymorphic simple sequence repeat markers were used to construct a genetic linkage map. Seed VE contents were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography for multiple years and locations (Harbin in 2007 and 2008, Hulan in 2008 and Suihua in 2008). Four QTL associated with α-Toc (on four linkage groups, LGs), eight QTL associated with γ-Toc (on eight LGs), four QTL associated with δ-Toc (on four LGs) and five QTL associated with total VE (on four LGs) were identified. A major QTL was detected by marker Satt376 on linkage group C2 and associated with α-Toc (0.0012 > P > 0.0001, 5.0% < R (2) < 17.0%, 25.1 < α-Toc < 30.1 μg g(−1)), total VE (P < 0.0001, 7.0% < R (2) < 10.0%, 118.2 < total VE < 478.3 μg g(−1)). A second QTL detected by marker Satt286 on LG C2 was associated with γ-Toc (0.0003 > P > 0.0001, 6.0% < R (2) < 13.0%, 141.5 < γ-Toc < 342.4 μg g(−1)) and total VE (P < 0.0001, 2.0% < R (2) < 9.0%, 353.9 < total VE < 404.0 μg g(−1)). Another major QTL was detected by marker Satt266 on LG D1b that was associated with α-Toc (0.0002 > P > 0.0001, 4.0% < R (2) < 6.0%, 27.7 < α-Toc < 43.7 μg g(−1)) and γ-Toc (0.0032 > P > 0.0001, 3.0% < R (2) < 10.0%, 69.7 < γ-Toc < 345.7 μg g(−1)). Since beneficial alleles were all from ‘OAC Bayfield’, it was concluded that these three QTL would have great potential value for marker assisted selection for high VE content.