Assessment of Phenotypic Variations and Correlation among Seed Composition Traits in Mutagenized Soybean Populations

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] seed is a valuable source of protein and oil worldwide. Traditionally, the natural variations were heavily used in conventional soybean breeding programs to select desired traits. However, traditional plant breeding is encumbered with low frequencies of spontaneous mutations. In mutation breeding, genetic variations from induced mutations provide abundant sources of alterations in important soybean traits; this facilitated the development of soybean germplasm with modified seed composition traits to meet the different needs of end users. In this study, a total of 2366 ‘Forrest’-derived M2 families were developed for both forward and reverse genetic studies. A subset of 881 M3 families was forward genetically screened to measure the contents of protein, oil, carbohydrates, and fatty acids. A total of 14 mutants were identified to have stable seed composition phenotypes observed in both M3 and M4 generations. Correlation analyses have been conducted among ten seed composition traits and compared to a collection of 103 soybean germplasms. Mainly, ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis had a strong impact on the seed-composition correlation that was observed among the 103 soybean germplasms, which offers multiple benefits for the soybean farmers and industry to breed for desired multiple seed phenotypes.