Rapid Development of Lipoxygenase‐2 Free Vegetable Soybean Genotypes (<scp><i>Glycine max</i></scp> (L.) Merill) Through Molecular Breeding Under Controlled Environment

ABSTRACT Vegetable soybean, or edamame, renowned for its taste and nutritional benefits, faces a challenge in consumer preference due to its beany flavour produced primarily by the gene Lox2 . The development of lipoxygenase‐2 free vegetable soybeans through conventional breeding approaches is time‐consuming. In this study, we attempted to eliminate lipoxygenase‐2 from a vegetable soybean variety Swarna Vasundhara by replacing its allele Lox2 with an alternative allele, that is, lox2 through a molecular breeding approach under controlled environmental conditions. The allele lox2 was obtained from a lipoxygenase‐2 free seed‐type soybean genotype PI596540. The hybrids were confirmed with molecular markers and crossed back to Swarna Vasundhara. The foreground selection was done with a lox2 ‐specific marker, while the background selection was done with 159 SSR markers. In BC 1 F 1 plants, the recovery of the recurrent parent genome ranged from 73.4% to 83.02%. Similarly, in the BC 2 F 1 , the recurrent parent genome recovery was 94.01%–97.2%. The recombinant selection and background selection in the BC 2 F 2 generation found plants with 96.23%–98.74% recovery of the recurrent parent genome. The controlled environments and the molecular breeding approaches expedited the development of Lox2 free introgression lines of Swarna Vasundhara within 24 months. The biochemical analysis in the seeds for lipoxygenase‐2 activity identified 11 lox2 introgressed BC 2 F 2 lines with similar lipoxygenase‐2 activity as in the donor parent, which was further confirmed in a colorimetric test. The field performance of some of these introgression lines was comparable to the recurrent parent Swarna Vasundhara in terms of yield and other morphological traits. The lipoxygenase‐2 free lines of Swarna Vasundhara would contribute towards popularizing vegetable soybean among consumers.