Analysis of lipid composition and morphological characteristics in soybean regenerants.

A study was conducted to examine the extent of somaclonal variation of soybean plants, Glycine max (L.) Merrill cv. 'McCall', regenerated via somatic embryogenesis from cultured immature cotyledons using two different protocols. The sexual progeny of regenerants were compared with normal, seed-derived populations for morphological characteristics and fatty acid composition of seeds. First generation progeny of regenerants showed greater phenotypic variation than the control population, but this variation was not observed in the second generation. No stable somaclonal variants for fatty acid composition of the seed oil or morphological characteristics were observed, indicating that this somatic embryogenesis system should be adaptable for transformation with minimal generation of unwanted variation.