Stability of Oleate Content in Soybean Lines Derived from M23

M23 is a soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] line with elevated oleate content that has been used to develop lines with elevated oleate combined with low saturated fatty acids (MO/LS), 1% linolenate (MO/LLN), or both low saturates and 1% linolenate (MO/LS/LLN). The objective of this study was to determine the stability of oleate content of eight MO/LS lines, nine MO/LLN lines, nine MO/LS/LLN lines, and four cultivars with conventional oleate content when grown in one Missouri and four Iowa environments during each of 2 yr. Averaged across the 10 environments, the mean oleate content was 590 g kg-1 for the MO/LS lines, 521 g kg-1 for the MO/LLN lines, 557 g kg-1 for the MO/LS/LLN lines, and 269 g kg-1 for the four cultivars. The mean oleate content of all lines was significantly greater in 2005 (545 g kg-1) than in 2006 (489 g kg-1) and the earliest planting date had the greatest oleate content both years. Stability of the individual lines based on either a regression analysis or on the range of their oleate content over environments indicated that the lines with the greatest oleate content generally had the most variation across environments. However, the lines with the greatest mean oleate content had the highest likelihood of meeting or exceeding 500 g kg-1 across environments.