Seed Protein Content and Fatty Acid Composition of Soybeans collected from Southwestern Islands in Korea

The 129 soybean genotypes were collected in 43 island locations from January to May 2001. Seeds of 129 genotypes collected were analyzed for crude protein and fatty acid composition contents. The crude protein content was averaged to 41.1 % and ranged from 37.4% to 44.4%. The average palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid content were 12.0%, 4.0%, 23.2%, 55.5%, and 7.9%, and the ranges of those were 10.0% to 15.0%, 3.0% to 4.8%, 21.7% to 25.5%, 50.2% to 58.3% and 7.0% to 12.0%, respectively. Heritabiliries of palmitic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and crude protein were higher, but that of stearic acid and linolenic acid were relatively lower. The genotypic correlation coefficients between crude protein and oleic acid showed highly positive correlation, but that of linoleic acid showed highly opsitive correlation, but that of linoleic acid showed highly negative correlation and also palmitic acid, stearic acid and linolenic acid showed negative correlation.