Lutein is a lipophilic antioxidant vitamin compound that may be beneficial to health in humans. For this reason, increasing the content of lutein in crops and vegetables has become a major breeding objective. The genetic variability of the lutein content in soybean is poorly documented. We analyzed the lutein content of 1,100 accessions of wild and cultivated soybeans by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and identified several wild soybean strains with a high content of lutein.

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... e wild soybean strains, characterized by a deep yellow cotyledon, also displayed peaks of β-carotene and chlorophyll pigments. On the other hand, all the analyzed cultivated soybean accessions with a yellow cotyledon exhibited a small lutein peak and substantially no β-carotene and chlorophyll peaks, whereas those with a green cotyledon displayed chlorophyll peaks. In the present study, it was shown that most of the lutein content in the seeds of the three wild soybean strains with a high content of lutein, 00033715, 00112742 and B01167, originated from the cotyledon, while almost all the β-carotene and chlorophyll pigments were localized in the seed coat, but not in the cotyledon. These results were consistent with the presence of a deep yellow cotyledon, implying that it is possible to increase the lutein content in the cotyledon of soybean by using the high lutein content character of wild soybeans. Moreover, since the high lutein content was stably maintained in the seeds obtained from the wild soybean strains grown in 2004 and 2005, it was suggested that the high lutein content of the wild soybeans was a stable trait.