SIU Researchers Developing Biofuel Soybeans

In his lab at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, biotechnologist David A. Lightfoot (left) and graduate student Charles Yesudas discuss their discovery of soybean genes that increase the seeds' oil content and energy value. Such oil could make the use of biodiesel possible not just in cars and trucks but in ships and submarines, too.
By K.C. Jaehnig

CARBONDALE, Ill. — With a few molecular tweaks, U.S. soybeans could help reduce America's need for foreign fuel oil.

Work going on now at the Illinois Soybean Center, a research facility at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, aims to produce an oilier bean designed specifically for the biodiesel industry. Analyzing beans developed at SIUC with new, high-tech equipment, University researchers have discovered two genetic regions that, along with three others previously found, contain genes controlling as much as 10 percent of the beans' oil content.

Using technology to pinpoint the genes so breeders can include them in new breeding lines could boost seeds' total oil content from 20 percent up to 30 percent. David A. Lightfoot, a biotechnologist heading that effort, anticipates SIUC will release its first biodiesel lines to breeders sometime in 2008.

"We have all seen the upward trend in fuel prices," Lightfoot said.

"It's inevitable that we will go that way (toward increased usage of sustainable fuels). The job of science is to put technology on the shelf so it will be ready when we need it."

Breeding for higher energy oils in soybean reverses 30 years of tradition, Lightfoot noted.

"That type of oil has been 'Public Enemy No. 1' for breeders since it was determined to be the major source of 'off' flavor in cooking," he said.

"Major companies have eliminated almost all of the oil from their seed."
SIU News, Oct. 23, 2007