Inheritance of fatty acids in linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.)

Abstract

Linseed (Unum usitatissimum L.) is an important non-edible oilseed crop of India grown widely under rainfed situation. Linseed oil is unique as it contains a fatty acid with three double bonds namely linolenic acid which is used mainly as drying oil. For the quantitative and qualitative improvement of linseed oil, it is imperative to know the genetics of fatty acid profiles and accordingly, the present investigation was undertaken. The experimental material comprised three crosses viz.; Neela x Hira, Neela x J-23 and RLC (U)-2 x T-397 of linseed. Six basic populations (P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1 and BC2) of each cross were grown in a randomized block design with three replications during rabi, 1998-99. The parents and F1 populations were sown in one row each, whereas, the backcrosses and F2 populations were represented by two and six rows, respectively. Five randomly selected plants from each of P1, P2 and F1 generations, 30 plants from F2 generations and 15 plants from backcrosses were used for the chemical analysis of quality traits. After the harvest, seed samples were collected from all the three replications of selected plants. Fatty acids were determined in triplicate by gas liquid chromatography [1]. Mather's scaling test was applied to detect the epistasis [2]. In case of significance of scaling tests, generation mean analysis was carried out using six parameter model as suggested by Hayman [3].