Rapid, cost-effective screening of flax genotypes to identify desirable fatty acid compositions

Abstract

Seeds of oil flax (Linum usitatissimum) are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and their composition is one of the major criteria for flax selection.Conventional breeding schemes take many years and need a lot of space in greenhouses and/or in fields to achieve genotypes with the desiredtraits. We have improved the half-seed method that allows flax line selection from their oil seed composition. Cotyledon tips were analysed byGC to determine their FAME profiles while the remaining seed was sown to regenerate flax plant. An optimisation of the GC enabled a sample tobe analysed every 4 minutes. Such a technique could be applied without loss of germination rate for excised seeds. Further experiments showedthat both seed parts had the same fatty acid profile as cotyledon tips. This non-destructive procedure based on the half-seed method and ultrafastGC analysis provides an efficient screening of flax genotypes according to their seed fatty acid composition over only one generation.

Keywords

• Gas chromatography
• oil flax
• half-seed
• screening
• fatty acid profiles
• linoleic acid