Soybean has around 20% oil in total seed compound. Fatty acid concentration of soybean oil is about 12% palmitic acid, 4% stearic acid, 23% oleic acid (ω-9), 54% linoleic acid(ω-6) 54% and 8% linolenic acid(ω-3). To improve oxidative stability and quality of oil, the breeding programs mainly focused on reducing saturated fatty acids, increasing oleic acid and reducing linolenic acid in soybean oil. In plant oil, an essential fatty acid omega-3 fatty acid is in the form of α-linolenic acid (ALA) therefore, increasing ALA in soybean oil became one of the breeding goals for human health. In our research group, we have two breeding programs for concentration of ALA in soybean oil. Wild soybeans have almost twice ALA than that in cultivated soybeans. Introgression of alleles from wild soybean to cultivated soybean may lead to the increase of ALA in soybean seed oil for various applications. We developed several backcross populations by elite cultivars x wild soybean to select high ALA with good agronomic traits. In the case of low linolenic acid program, we developed an EMS (ethyl methane sulfonate) mutation population to select low ALA concentration line and found a mutant line with low ALA in seed oil. The scheme for developing high ALA concentration from wild soybean and molecular characterization for low ALA line will be discussed.

A total area of reclaimed land in Korea is about 135,100 ha, which occupies 9 % of total arable land. Soybean is one of the most important crop in Korea and demand for the crop is increasing, while the country’s self-sufficiency is very low, around 9 %. If it’s possible to cultivate soybean in reclaimed land, it would increase self-sufficiency of the soybean. However, there are difficulties to cultivate soybean in reclaimed land because of excessive level of salinity in the soil, to prevent this barrier in saline soils, it is necessary to develop salt tolerant soybean cultivar. This research was conducted to select salt tolerant lines derived from PI 483463 (salt tolerant wild soybean accession). The F1 (Hutcheson × PI 483463) was backcrossed with Hutcheson and Wooram (salt sensitive soybean cultivar). For marker assisted selection and salt reaction phenotyping, randomly selected BC1F1 seeds from two backcross populations were planted in 11 cm tall tray. At the V1 growth stage, DNA was sampled with FTA card. The genomic DNA and SSR marker, BARCSOYSSR_03_1348, were used for PCR amplification and the result was checked through electrophoresis. The trays with BC1F1 plants were immersed in 100 mM NaCl solution up to the bottom third of the trays directly after the DNA extraction. After two weeks, phenotype was measured depending on leaf scorch degree. Through this research, 25 dominant homozygote lines and 22 heterozygote lines from Hutcheson backcross population and 28 dominant homozygote lines and 37 heterozygote lines from Wooram backcross population were selected. These lines will be used for developing soybean with salt tolerance