Abstract: The progresses of both the traditional and recent studies on the genetic effects on the content of seed amino acids were reviewed. One of the most important objectives in plant quality breeding is to increase the amino acid content in crop seeds. The trait of seed amino acid content was thought to be controlled by multiple genes. In the previous studies，the methods of generation average or additive-dominant genetic model were utilized to analyze the genetic effects on this trait，and the results showed that the genetic mechanisms controlling the content of amino acids in seeds were quite different among crops. Recently，much complex quantitative genetic models and statistical methods were used，and the results indicated that the content of seed amino acids was regulated not only by the triploid endosperms （diploid embryo），cytoplasm，and the genetic main effects of diploid maternal plants，but also by the GE interaction effects，though the extent to which was different among these effects.

Key words: seed, amino acid content, quantitative trait, genetic models