BACKGROUND: Edamame is a vegetable soybean (Glycine max) rich in protein with well-balanced amino acid profiles, including all the essential amino acids. It is also relatively high in oil consisting of five fatty acids. In this study, fatty and amino acid contents in oven-dried edamame and mature seeds in 54 genotypes were analyzed to help edamame breeding and relevant research. RESULTS: Significant differences (P < 0.01) between dried edamame and mature soybeans were found for all traits, suggesting that the contents of seed fatty and amino acids varied with drying method and/or growth stage. The genotypic effects were significant for amino acids in all cases and mostly for fatty acids. Fatty acid content was more variable than amino acids in both edamame and mature soybeans. The broad-sense heritability estimates of traits in mature soybeans (51.89-90.37%) were larger than those in edamame seeds (13.10-81.83%), and the estimates for amino acids were larger than those for fatty acids. Correlations between the two edamame drying methods or between the edamame and mature soybeans were significant for all fatty and amino acids with few exceptions, and the correlation coefficients for amino acids (0.36-0.89) were larger than those for fatty acids (0.29-0.81). CONCLUSIONS: Selection for both fatty and amino acids in edamame seems less effective than that in mature soybeans, and the improvement of amino acids would be more achievable than fatty acid improvement. Indirect selection through mature soybeans may benefit the edamame improvement for most of the amino acids.
BACKGROUND:Edamame is a vegetable soybean (Glycine max) rich in protein with well-balanced amino acid profiles, including all the essential amino acids. It is also relatively high in oil consisting of five fatty acids. In this study, fatty and amino acid contents in oven-dried edamame and mature seeds in 54 genotypes were analyzed to help edamame breeding and relevant research. RESULTS: Significant differences (P < 0.01) between dried edamame and mature soybeans were found for all traits, suggesting that the contents of seed fatty and amino acids varied with drying method and/or growth stage. The genotypic effects were significant for amino acids in all cases and mostly for fatty acids. Fatty acid content was more variable than amino acids in both edamame and mature soybeans. The broad-sense heritability estimates of traits in mature soybeans (51.89-90.37%) were larger than those in edamame seeds (13.10-81.83%), and the estimates for amino acids were larger than those for fatty acids. Correlations between the two edamame drying methods or between the edamame and mature soybeans were significant for all fatty and amino acids with few exceptions, and the correlation coefficients for amino acids (0.36-0.89) were larger than those for fatty acids (0.29-0.81). CONCLUSIONS: Selection for both fatty and amino acids in edamame seems less effective than that in mature soybeans, and the improvement of amino acids would be more achievable than fatty acid improvement. Indirect selection through mature soybeans may benefit the edamame improvement for most of the amino acids.