Genetic divergence among accessions of Carthamus tinctorius L. by morphoagronomic traits

Abstract

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is a crop that produces oil with high content of oleic and linoleic acids, which has great quality for human consumption and industrial use, such as in biodiesel production, and cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The objective of this study was to quantify the genetic diversity among 20 safflower genotypes by morphological characteristics. The genotypes were grouped into nine groups based on the measurements of genetic divergence obtained by means of Mahalanobis distance (D 2 ) and in the grouping by Tocher optimization method. Heritability coefficients ranged from 89 to 93% and b quotient was above 1.0 indicating that the variability in the population allows obtaining genetic gains for all traits. Grain yield is the character that most contributed to the genetic variability of the population studied. The accesses of Group V are favorable for use as parents in crosses to obtain new genotypes with high grain and oil yields, and desirable plant architecture.

Genetic variability, adaptability and, stability of safflower genotypes developed for the Brazilian conditions by REML/BLUP

“…Characteristics related to plant morphology, such as plant height and the number of branches and heads, presented low heritability. Unlike this study, Silva et al (2015), Golkar et al (2017), andOlivo et al (2020) observed high values of heritability for plant morphology characteristics. The low heritability values are due to the high environmental effect.…”

“…The oil content is highly influenced by the genetic characteristics of the plants, climatic and soil conditions, and crop management. Under Brazilian conditions, Silva et al (2015), reported average values of oil content from 20.7 to 30.5% and Bortolheiro and Silva (2017) from 19.91 to 30.32%.…”

“…Safflower has tolerance to water deficiency, which is an important advantage to use the species as an alternative for diversification and crop rotation in the Brazilian Cerrado, mainly in succession to soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] (Bonfim- Silva et al, 2015;Paludo et al, 2018).…”

“…Brazil does not yet have considerable safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) production (Fao, 2019). However, considering soil, climate, and area, the country has great potential for its cultivation (Bonfim-Silva et al, 2015;Paludo et al, 2018;Silva et al, 2015). Safflower has tolerance to water deficiency, which is an important advantage to use the species as an alternative for diversification and crop rotation in the Brazilian Cerrado, mainly in succession to soybean Abbreviations: FCA / UNESP, School of Agricultural Science / São Paulo State University; HMRPGV i, , harmonic means of the relative performance of the genetic values; REML/BLUP, restricted maximum likelihood/best linear unbiased prediction.…”

“…Agronomy Journal © 2021 American Society of Agronomy [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] (Bonfim- Silva et al, 2015;Paludo et al, 2018).…”